Crazy About Each Other
by Dudette13
Summary: Sequel to Have a Heart. Lily and James are finally going out, but life's just as busy as before. What, with NEWTS to study for, the wizarding war to worry about and attempts at playing matchmaker, Lily's in for two VERY eventful last terms! LEJP, SBOC.
1. Kim

**A/N:** And we're back! My laptop is once again working! It's a miracle! To celebrate, I'm writing the first chapter of this earlier than I'd planned. I've no idea where this story is going, unlike the prequel, so suggestions are welcome, as is constructive criticism. Enjoy!

**Disclaimer:** Would J.K. Rowling write a parody of Waltzing Matilda called 'Obsessed Romilda' whilst drunk on salty air with her best friend? Yeah, I didn't think so.

Lily Evans sat in an armchair the Gryffindor Common Room. As usual, a book was held in her arms, this one called _Heliopaths, Blibbering Humdingers and Other Myths_. A fire was crackling merrily beside her, warming her arms, and snow was falling softly past the window above her head.

She looked up quickly as she heard the faint creak that meant the Fad Lady had swung forwards. Her eyes flicked back to her book as she saw who it was; James and his friends. Not that there was anything wrong with them. In fact, in the last few weeks she had experienced some unreal and romantic holidays with them. Now she realised that they weren't as bad as she had thought.

But now Christmas was over, and Lily was waiting for her friends to arrive back at school. She couldn't wait to tell everyone about her and James! Of course, she couldn't tell the whole truth. She couldn't say anything, for example, about how she had found out that Remus was a werewolf. Or that James, Sirius and Peter happened to be unregistered animagi. But she _could_ tell everyone what she was really desperate to say. About James kissing her under the mistletoe. About his lame-but-cute excuses to get her on her own at last. And about the thumping feeling in her heart she underwent every time he looked at her.

"What're you reading?" James was leaning on the back of her chair, his eyes fixed upon the novel in her arms.

"A book." She told him.

"Really?" was the sarcastic reply.

"Yes, really." Said Lily. James was scanning the open pages.

"…_The Crumple-Horned Snorkack was believed to dwell within Swedish mountain ranges._ I can't believe you're actually reading a text book! Term doesn't even start until tomorrow!"

"For your information, pothead, we are going to be sitting NEWT examinations in just a few short months and I, unlike you, care about my education and respective career." She snapped. What was wrong with reading non-fiction books, anyway?

"Yeah, well, like you said - they're still months away. Why don't you take the night off? I certainly am."

"Yeah well, you take the night off every night _during_ term, so that's not really saying anything."

"Aw, c'mon Lily! Take a break."

"No."

"For me?"

"No."

"Lord, I don't know how I ended up loving someone so stubborn!" joked James.

"I don't know how _I_ ended up loving someone so lazy!" said Lily, but there was humour in her eyes. Anyone could see the two were crazy about each other.

"Well, you ended up loving me nonetheless." Said James. He tilted her chin upwards, gave her a quick peck on the lips and walked over to Sirius, Remus and Peter.

Grinning, Lily went back to her book, but barely took in a word when the portrait hole flew open once again. A mass of students, back from the holidays, swarmed through it. Lily tried looking for girls in her year, but gave up as the Gryffindors streamed through the common room and up the stairs to put their bags in their dormitories.

"Hey, Lils!" Lily turned around to see her best friend, Kimberly Meadowes, running towards her.

"Hi Kim! How were your holidays?"

"Alright. It was pretty boring, you know. What about you?"

"Mine were, er, eventful."

"In what way?"

"Well… I broke my nose." Said Lily, running a finger down the bridge of her nose as she said so. Kim smiled.

"Let me guess, Potter?"

"You got it." Both of them giggled.

"You know, I bet he isn't really that bad once you get to know him." Said Kim thoughtfully.

"Well, you-"

"I mean, look at all the romance stories which start off as the couple hating each other! Poor bloke's been obsessed with you since first year, you should give him a chance, Lily."

"Actually, Kim, we-"

"And how're you going to know if he's _not_ the one if you don't even try? He's got way less arrogant this year, too, now he's head boy. He's almost… mature!"

"Look, let me-"

"I know what you're going to say, and, no, _I'm_ right. He's much less conceited, and even _more_ of a hottie!"

"If you would just listen to me for two sec-"

"And I bet he'd be even less of a big head if you actually accepted his date offer for once. You know all the hair ruffling was to try and impress you, right? It's our last two terms at Hogwarts, and you might never see him again! You might regret it someday if-"

"KIM!" yelled Lily. Kim blinked.

"Huh?" she asked. Lily swallowed. She'd been looking forward to telling Kim this all week, but now it was time, she was finding it hard to say.

"I, er… me and James, we're kind of, sort of…"

"Yes?"

"We're going out." She said quickly. Kim's jaw dropped.

"You're _what_?"

"Going out. We're going out."

"You're – Oh my God, This is amazing! After seven years, you've FINALLY realised you're as much in love with him as he is with you!"

"Yeah. I guess so."

"Well, how'd it happen? How did James finally corner you?" Lily grinned.

"Let's go upstairs. I'll help you unpack - and tell you all about it."

**A/N:** So, whadda you think? Like it? Hate it? Think it's too short for a first chapter? Whatever you want to say, just Let. Me. Know. By. Reviewing. Pretty please with sugar on top?


	2. Girl Talk

**A/N:** Thankyou scowlingpixie, rupertisahottie05 and russianchikk! This chapter should be longer than the last, but the story really isn't going anywhere yet, so I dunno, we'll have to wait and see what happens.

**Disclaimer:** If I was Jo Rowling, I wouldn't have wasted my time thinking of original disclaimers for thirteen chapters!

"So… What happened between you and James?" asked Kim as the dormitory door swung shut behind them.

"_Lily and_ _James?_ Have they got together at last?" asked a voice from the other side of the room.

"Hey, Alice." said Lily. "How was your Christmas?"

"Oh, pretty cool. Fairly quiet - Frank's just started Auror training at the Ministry, so he's pretty busy now days." said Alice. "How about you?"

"Lily was just going to tell me about her Christmas with _James_." Kim put a lot of emphasis on the last word.

"Do my ears deceive me? Has Lily grown to _like_ the pothead we've been hearing her rant about for seven years?" asked another one of their dorm-mates, Emmeline Vance, from the door.

"Apparently she's finally come to realise that boy is hot stuff." said Alice.

"Hey! I didn't say that!"

"But you _did_ say you were going out."

"Who's going out?" the last Gryffindor girl in their year, Tara Light, was standing behind Emmeline.

"Lily and James."

"What? How?"

"Lily was just about to tell us."

"I was about to tell _Kim_." grumbled Lily.

"C'mon, Lils!" asked Alice "How'd it happen?"

"Alright." Lily smiled. "Christmas day, and I was bored because pretty much no one was here but the marauders. I'd been going to the library every day, and Christmas was no different. So basically I read until dinner, and brought some books back to the common room with me."

"_Some_ books? More like two dozen." muttered Tara.

"Anyway, I was reading when James, Sirius, Remus and Peter got back. It was like, half past twelve, so I wasn't going to let them get away with being out that late. I told them I'd tell McGonagall and James asks me to 'Have a heart!' - so I told him I'd 'have a heart' if they helped me put away the books. Only Sirius, Remus and Peter acted as though they'd thought I was just talking to James, and went up to their dormitory. So I was stuck by myself with James and was kind of getting scared (because, you know, who knows what he's capable of when you're alone with him?)"

"And you happen to be the girl he's been in love with forever." added Emmeline.

"He cracked a joke or two and I was a bit more relaxed by the time we were finished. We stood up and James pointed at the ceiling and said 'mistletoe'. I looked up and couldn't see any mistletoe – but then James pulled a branch out of his pocket and held it above us."

"And then he kissed you?" asked Kim.

"And then he kissed me." agreed Lily. All five girls sighed.

"About time." said Emmeline.

"Mmm, Now all we've got to do is get Kim and Sirius together, and we'll all have found ourselves the perfect man." said Alice. Kim turned a vivid shade of magenta, but muttered;

"I don't know what you're talking about." Lily, Alice, Emmeline and Tara grinned at one another.

"Don't you?" asked Lily innocently. After all, Kim had been teasing _her_ for the last half hour!

"No!" said Kim. Lily smirked and Tara sniggered.

"Are you _sure_?"

"Yes!"

"Whatever, Kim." said Emmeline. "Are you two coming down to the common room?"

"In a minute – I told Kim I'd help her unpack." said Lily, and Alice, Emmeline and Tara left. Lily threw a shirt into Kim's drawer, and was about to pick up another when Kim asked;

"What happened after Christmas Day?"

"Between me and James, you mean?"

"Yeah."

"Oh… er, nothing interesting." Kim raised an eyebrow.

"I've been your best friend for seven years now; you think I don't know when you're lying?" Lily bit her lip as she folded the shirt, considering her answer.

"Well, we had a bit of a fight, but we made up." she said finally.

"What about?"

"Erm, he asked me on a date on a night that he had something on."

"What did he have on?"

"He, er…" Lily raked her mind for something to say "he didn't end up telling me."

"And you still made up with him? That's not like you!" exclaimed Kim. Lily shrugged.

"I suppose you're right – I _have_ liked him for ages. I guess I just loved him too much to stay mad, or something."

"But-"

"Where do these socks go?" she interrupted. Kim sighed and pointed.

"So I guess you just spent the rest of Christmas reading?" she asked.

"Yeah. James kept teasing me about how NEWTs are months away, the idiot."

"Oh, don't remind me about NEWTs!" said Kim

"Why?"

"Because every time I think about them I start hyperventilating." said Kim. Lily smiled.

"We'll do fine."

"_You'll_ do fine, at least."

"I did no better than you in OWLs." Lily shrugged. "Just don't think about the exams."

"Oh that'll be _really_ easy, they're only the most important tests we'll ever take! How am I supposed to not think about them?" said Kim in a slightly hysteric voice.

"Think about something else, instead."

"Like what?"

"Oh, I dunno._ Sirius_, maybe?" said Lily, grinning. Kim threw a pillow at her.

"Shut up."

"C'mon, admit it. You like him."

"I do not!"

_Oh well._ thought Lily. _I'll force her to admit it sometime. But, like she herself said, these are our last two terms at school – SHE might regret it if she doesn't do something about her and Sirius!_

"You know what, Kim? That's exactly what I would've said about James a few months ago, and it turned out I was denying liking him, didn't it?" said Lily.

Kim turned bright pink.

**A/N:** Eh, I couldn't think of a better ending, I had writers block near the end of this chapter. Was this chapter too jumpy and/or hard to understand? Tell me if it was – I think it might've been but I'm not really sure, being the author.


	3. Rumours and Reveries

**A/N:** My thankyous shall go to rupertisahottie05, zippyfox, webling-girl05 (Gee, thanks!) and PremzaWitchOfWeirdos (too true, too true.). I don't think I have anymore to say, so on with the story!

**Disclaimer:** J.K. Rowling has important things to do. I don't. Therefore, I write fanfiction.

"Did you hear? Lily Evans is going out with James Potter!"

"WHAT? How'd that happen?"

"No idea!"

"Maybe he spiked her pumpkin juice with love potion!"

"Maybe he forced her into it!"

"Maybe-" but the three Ravenclaw girls broke off in shrill laughter as Lily and Kim passed their table. Lily had always known how fast gossip travelled throughout Hogwarts, but this had to be a record. The news that the head boy and girl were romantic seemed to have spread overnight. There were a few muffled giggles as she sat down next to James.

"Exactly how many people did you tell about our holidays, James?" she demanded. He shrugged.

"Why?"

"Because the whole school's talking about us!"

"So what? Why _shouldn't_ everyone know?" James squeezed her hand under the table and Lily smiled. There was a snigger from opposite them. A third year Lily knew by sight was staring at them from across the kippers.

"Can we help you?" asked Remus. The third year turned red, but whispered something to the boy next to him, who giggled.

"Idiots." muttered Sirius and Kim at the same moment. They glanced at each other, turned red and looked away again.

Lily exchanged glances with James, who grinned. There was an awkward pause, until Remus broke the silence by asking;

"What do you recon we'll be doing in Transfiguration?"

"We'll get a huge lecture about NEWTs, probably." said Kim, looking relieved that no-one had mentioned what had just happened. Sirius and James groaned.

They finished breakfast and everyone but Peter set off for Transfiguration. Lily felt Professor McGonagall's sharp eyes on her as she sat between Kim and James. _Oh, great. Even the teachers know about me and James!_

Kim was right in thinking Professor McGonagall would talk about the exams. For the first half hour of the lesson, they were given a talking to about the importance of the NEWTs. Lily found her attention wander in the direction of James. He was scribbling something on the side of his parchment, with that untidy, black hair of his flopping down over his brown eyes…

Brown eyes Lily knew so well that she could recognise them even when James wasn't in his human form. Brown eyes that grinned up at her hopefully every time she'd looked at him for seven years. Brown eyes that made her knees feel like jelly. Brown eyes Lily had grown to like, even love, of late. Brown eyes that she hoped to love forever.

"Thinking about James?" whispered Kim, smirking. Lily felt a blush creeping up her neck.

"Why?" she asked. Kim grinned and pointed down at her parchment. There Lily had subconsciously doodled a large heart with the letter 'J' and the beginning of a curve for an 'a'. She hastily ripped the top of her parchment and shoved it in her bag. Kim stuffed her fist in her mouth to stop herself from laughing out loud.

"Miss Meadowes! Would you kindly pay attention?" barked Professor McGonagall.

"Oh, yes." giggled Kim. "Sorry, Professor."

----------

After Defence Against the Dark Arts, during which Lily, Kim, James, Sirius, Remus and Peter had done nothing but take notes from text books, it was lunch time. As the six of them sat down, Lily noticed something odd.

"What's up with Snape?" she murmured to Kim. Kim turned towards the Slytherin table. There Snape sat, with his obtrusive nose drooping and his greasy hair lank around his shoulders. He looked less evil, somehow.

"I dunno." said Kim. "He looks almost… sad."

"I know. But what would he be sad about?"

"Probably upset that Prongs is going out with you." said Sirius, who had apparently been eavesdropping on them. "He'd hate anything that made James happy."

"I suppose." Said Remus, who had plainly been listening too. "Or maybe…"

"Oi! Are you guys planning to join us at any point?" asked James, who was already over at the Gryffindor table with Peter. Sirius, Remus and Kim began to walk over to them, and Lily followed suit.

"What've you got next, Kim?" asked Remus as they sat down.

"Oh, um," Kim checked her timetable. "Free period. You guys have got Arithmancy, right?"

"Yeah. You know, I still don't know why you two did Arithmancy in the first place." said Lily, waggling her index finger from James and Sirius.

"I just signed up for every class you did." explained James, and everyone laughed. Lily, realising this was true, rolled her eyes.

"And I did the same as Prongs." said Sirius. "Except I continued Astronomy as well, after fifth year." _Which, incidentally, Kim also continued._ Thought Lily and smiled.

----------

"Can you _believe_ how much homework we've got already?" asked Kim, scanning page three hundred and twenty seven of_ Charms of the Eighteenth Century_. "First day back after Christmas, and they've already loaded us down with two essays and three chapters to read! What're they trying to do, kill us?"

"You're just lucky you don't take Arithmancy, Kim." grumbled Lily. "I've got to finish a theoretical paper, too."

"It's not due until Friday; you've got plenty of time." said Sirius' voice from behind her. Lily scowled.

"I hope you two are going to do some homework tonight."

"Awful sorry, Lily," said James. "But we can't."

"Why not?" asked Lily.

"Quidditch practise." said Sirius.

"You scheduled practise for tonight just to get out of doing homework, didn't you, James?" Kim asked.

"You got it." agreed James and checked his watch. "Blimey! Padfoot, we'd better go." He swiftly kissed Lily, and he and Sirius left.

"Why do you recon they call him Padfoot?" asked Kim, writing something down on her parchment.

"Er, no idea."

"Have you ever realised that all four of them have really weird nicknames?" persisted Kim.

"Um, no…" lied Lily, wishing Kim would drop the subject.

"Mmm, Sirius is 'Padfoot', Remus is 'Moony', Peter is worm-something-or-other and James is 'Prongs'. I mean, Prongs? What is he, a fork?"

"Yeah." muttered Lily. "Weird."

"So, has James asked you out yet?" asked Kim, sensing that Lily wanted to change the subject.

"Not since Christmas, no."

"He will soon, I'm guessing?" asked Kim. Lily looked up from her book and grinned.

"I sure hope so."

**A/N:** OK, slightly random, but this fic's going to be. I know Lily is pretty obsessed with James' eyes – but I've found that the guy's eyes are good triggers for me, they help me come up with all that mushy stuff that I have so much fun writing. (And that you hopefully enjoy reading. Well, I guess you must like that sort of thing if you're reading my fic, huh?)


	4. Saturday

**A/N:** Before I say anything else, IceFire9, zippyfox, EboniteEvans, rupertisahottie05 and PremzaWitchOfWeirdos, you rock! Reviews are what keep me writing, so if you're reading this and haven't reviewed, could you? Please? (puppy dog eyes) C'mon, I'll be your friend!

**Disclaimer:** I would say that I'd written all the Harry Potter books; but J.K.R would probably get angry and sue me. Although, I _do_ have two lawyers for parents. Hmm…

The first week of term two passed fairly quickly. More rumours were spreading about Lily and James, and Lily began to get annoyed after she was asked for the fifth time if it was true that James had bought her two hundred bouquets of flowers in order to receive her attention. It was a relief for all of the seventh years when they reached the weekend.

Lily woke up at eight o'clock on Saturday morning to find some blue sky visible for the first time in weeks. Deciding they should take advantage of the good weather, Lily threw her pillow at Kim in an attempt to wake her up.

"Oi! That's my head!" mumbled Kim in her sleep, and rolled over. Lily sighed - Kim had never been a morning person.

"KIM!" she yelled, throwing yet another pillow at Kim's bed.

"S'it time to get up already?" asked Kim sleepily, lifting her head up slowly from the pillow. Lily nodded, and Kim's head sunk back down to her pillow.

"Five more minutes…" she mumbled. Lily rolled her eyes and began to get dressed.

It took another half hour to finally get Kim out of bed, but as soon as she was up, she was more than willing to make good use of the weather. She grumbled, however, when Lily suggested that they use the sunshine to study.

"Can't we just _enjoy_ ourselves for once?" she asked.

"We've got more homework than you can poke a stick at, and I for one would prefer to do it outside in the sun than when I'm half asleep tonight." Lily argued. Kim protested some more, but eventually she gave in. Thus, at about nine-thirty, the two of them set out for the grounds with their bags.

They settled in the shade, right by the lake. The grass was covered in dew, but Lily and Kim threw themselves down onto it, anyway. Lily pulled out her Transfiguration paper, a book and a quill and began her work.

About half an hour later, Kim's head jerked up from her essay. Out of the corner of her eye, Lily saw her grin at somebody behind Lily's back. A shadow (or rather, four shadows,) fell over her parchment. Lily herself began to turn around, but before she could see who Kim was smiling at, two arms grabbed her around the waist and tackled her to the floor.

Lily squealed as she was hurled to the ground. With all the strength she could summon, she shoved the student onto their back. As she had suspected, familiar hazel eyes glittered up at her mischievously.

"Honestly, James! We're meant to be setting an example for the younger students, not wrestling each other!" said Lily exasperatedly, although she couldn't help but smile.

"It's called fun, Lily." said James, and he began to mercilessly tickle her. Kim, Sirius, Remus and Peter began to laugh at the sight of the head girl doubled over in a fit of giggles.

"Oh – no – you – don't!" Lily gasped, and managed to force James onto his stomach. He rolled over in attempt to tickle her once more.

SPLASH! The two of them had tumbled right into the lake. Hair sopping wet and covered with slime, Lily and James turned their gaze back to their friends. Remus was chuckling at the pair of them, Kim and Peter were clutching their stomachs, shaking with mirth, and Sirius was rolling around on the grass, laughing his head off at them. Lily and James chortled along with them as Sirius pounded the ground hilarity.

"Oh, man." said Sirius, once he could speak again. "Wish we'd had a camera."

"You two should have seen your faces." Remus agreed. Lily turned to James and cuffed him lightly across the head.

"Numskull!" she scoffed. He responded by splashing her, and she shook her head. "James Potter, you are the most childish-" but James cut her off by kissing her promptly. She smiled.

"Get a room!" called Sirius from the bank.

----------

Needless to say, Lily did not get much of her homework done during the day. She and Kim were still in the common room well past midnight that night, trying their best to concentrate on potions when they really longed to just go up to bed and close their itching eyes.

Lily was about to suggest that they give up for the night when Kim yawned, rolled up her parchment and put it in her bag.

"I'm beat." She said in an exhausted voice. "See you in the morning."

"What, you're going to just leave me to finish my homework by myself?" Lily asked.

"Well, you _do_ have way more than me to do." Said Kim, and Lily frowned. "Besides, I think someone wants to speak to you alone." She jerked her head to the boys' staircase, and made to leave.

"Night." bade Lily, and turned in the direction Kim had indicated. There, of course, stood James.

"Hey." he said.

"Hi." replied Lily, looking back down to her essay. There was a pause. James obviously wanted to say something, and she wasn't going to interrupt.

"You got all the muck out of your hair, then?" asked James.

"Eventually." said Lily, feigning anger. "I had to wash it more than once, though."

"Hey, it could've got worse. At least there was no sign of the giant squid!" said James, and Lily laughed. There was another pause.

"I know the last time I asked you this I almost got you killed," began James hesitantly, "But do you want to come to Hogsmeade with me, at some point in time?"

"Course I do, you idiot!" exclaimed Lily, neglecting to mention she'd been hoping he'd say it all week. "I'm your girlfriend, aren't I? When?"

"Well, since last time I was idiotic enough to ask you out at full moon, I wanted to do something special." said James, and Lily raised her eyebrows. He was sounding an awful lot like the stereotype boys in the romance novels she used to read.

"Are you free on Valentines Day?" he continued.

"Oooh, yes!" she gushed, all sarcasm forgotten. James smiled.

"Cool."

"It's not full moon on Valentines Day?" she asked.

"Nup."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I actually checked with Moony." He said, and watched Lily pack her things up.

"You don't have to wait for me, you know." She told him with a yawn.

"Yeah, I know." He replied. Lily shrugged and swung her things over her shoulder. She was halfway to the stairs when she realised just _why _James had been waiting for her. She turned and walked back to him.

"Thankyou, James." She said, and leaned in and kissed him. He kissed her right back.

"Now, _that's_ my idea of a goodnight." said James as they eventually broke apart. Lily shook her head.

"You're just saying that in the hope that I'll snog you some more."

"No, I'm saying it because it's true." excused James. Lily raised an eyebrow. "Although I wouldn't exactly oppose more snogging." He added, and Lily's face split into a grin.

"Neither would I."

**A/N: **Tee hee, that lake part was fun. I hope this chapter comes out the way I wanted it to; fairly pointless. Thanks to rupertisahottie05 and PremzaWitchOfWeirdos for some ideas… I'm most definitely going to use them! Well, if you let me, of course.


	5. What is the World Coming To?

**A/N:** Hokay, this chappy starts off about 5-10 minutes from where we left off. It's kind of a bits-and-pieces chapter, sorry if that annoys you. By the by, the usual thanks go to russianchikk, webling-girl05, rupertisahottie05, frenchfriesrule and zippyfox.

**Disclaimer:** I have a confession to make. I've been lying to you for four chapters, not to mention my other four _stories_! No, I'm seriously J. K. Rowling, also known as Dudette13. (In case you haven't worked it out; I WAS BEING SARCASTIC! Or _was_ I…?)

Lily sighed happily as she sunk down into her pillow. James had finally asked her out! And on Valentines Day! Who cared if that was a month away? It was still the most romantic thing he could have possibly done…

"So, what happened?" whispered Kim from somewhere in the darkness.

"I thought you went to sleep," accused Lily. She saw the dim outline of Kim shrug.

"I wanted to hear what happened. Did he ask you-?" but she broke off in an excited squeal as Lily nodded.

"Shuddup." mumbled someone sleepily.

"It's two in the morning!" grumbled someone else.

"Sorry." Lily apologised.

"When?" asked Kim.

"Valentines Day!"

"Seriously?"

"Yep."

"How cute!"

"I know. And, thankfully, its not full m-" Lily cursed herself mentally.

"Not what?"

"Not… um…" _Quick! Think of a believable lie!_ "It's not on a weekday."

"Huh?"

"Valentine's Day. It's on a Sunday, so we can actually go to Hogsmeade."

"Whatever." Kim looked as though she didn't think Lily was being entirely truthful.

"Well, _If_ it were a weekday, we wouldn't be allowed to go out on a date, would we? But, thankfully, it's on a weekend, so we _can_ go on a date." She said hurriedly. Kim raised an eyebrow, but said;

"I wish _I_ was asked out on Valentines Day. It's _so_ romantic."

"Yeah, but Sirius probably wouldn't want to have a date at the same time as his best mate. That would just be weird." teased Lily.

"Yeah, I guess you're ri… Hey!" said Kim, but too late. Not that Lily could see her face in the dark, but she was quite sure Kim had just turned bright red.

"Oh, c'mon Kim! Will you admit it already? Everyone knows."

"Everyone?" whispered Kim meekly.

"Yeah, pretty much. Except Sirius, he's clueless."

Kim sighed in relief. "Thank God."

"Don't worry. You two are going to get together, I can just feel it." said Lily. Kim chuckled.

"I felt the same thing with you and James."

Lily grinned. "Two pairs of best friends. Two perfect couples."

"Mmm. We'll just have to see how it turns out, eh?"

"Yeah."

"WILL YOU TWO SHUT UP AND GO TO SLEEP?" a third sleepy person yelled.

----------

Lily and Kim slept in until midday on Sunday. Both stomachs were rumbling, so they walked down to the Great Hall for lunch.

"Hi guys." said Peter, raising a hand in welcome.

"Hey." said Kim, sitting down. "Yum! Steak-and-kidney pie!"

Steak-and-kidney pie was also one of Lily's favourites, so she settled between James and Kim once again. She had just begun to pile food onto her plate when Sirius said something. Or rather, he tried to say something, but his mouth was too full to make the words possible to understand.

"Huh?" asked James. Sirius swallowed.

"I said, do you two have patrol duty tonight?" said Sirius.

"Good question. Do we?" James asked Lily.

"Dunno. Go to the staff room and ask McGonagall." She told him, and James winced.

"Will you come with?"

"Why? You're only going to the staff room!"

"Exactly." James shuddered. Kim laughed.

"Alright, then. I'll accompany you on your heroic quest to the staff room." Lily said dramatically. "But after lunch." She added.

So, after they had eaten, the head boy and girl set off to ask about patrol duty. They reached the staff room door, and Lily raised her fist to knock when the use of her own name stopped her.

"…and Potter and Evans have finally gotten together, it seems." said a voice that Lily recognised as Professor McGonagall's.

"Couldn't keep their eyes off each other!" squeaked Professor Flitwick in agreement. "That's the first time I've ever seen Miss Evans' attention wander in class."

"I wonder how Potter managed it. Been trying for years, hasn't he?" Professor Slughorn's voice floated out from under the door.

Lily merely gaped. She turned to James, who looked just as stunned as she felt. A student gossiping was one thing, but a _teacher_? That was just weird.

"Probably bought her with an expensive Christmas gift." said Professor Kettleburn. Professor McGonagall snorted.

"It's far more likely he manipulated her with mistletoe, like every other male student in this school."

Lily grinned and turned to James, who raised his eyebrows.

"Yeah, James! Don't manipulate innocent people with mistletoe!"

"You can't say you aren't glad I 'manipulated' you." He joked. "Shall we intrude on their discussion?" Lily smiled and nodded.

"Minerva, don't you-" but whoever was talking stopped abruptly as Lily knocked on the door.

"Come in!" Professor McGonagall barked, so Lily and James entered. The teachers exchanged guilty looks as they saw who it was.

"Er, Professor, we were just wondering if we had patrol duty tonight." said Lily nervously.

"Oh, yes." She replied.

"Right," said Lily.

"Thanks." said James awkwardly, and they both sidled out of the room.

"What the hell?" said James once they were out of earshot of the staff room.

"I know. Who would've guessed the teachers were so impervious to gossip?"

"Blimey, even our _teachers_ know the rumours! This isn't going to be a private relationship, is it?"

"No, I don't suppose it is." said Lily, and she slipped her hand into his. "But who cares?" James smiled.

"And speaking of relationships," he began "What are we going to do about Padfoot and Kim?"

"I think we should let them work it out on their own." she replied.

"Where's the fun in that?" asked James, and Lily rolled her eyes.

"It's not _about_ fun, James. If they thought that we were interfering in their-" but she was cut off by James kissing her. Lily sighed.

"Why do you always have to do that?" she complained. James shrugged.

"There's no other way to shut you up." he explained simply, and when Lily rolled her eyes again, he added; "Besides, I have to make up for six and a half years of being in love with you, yet not being able to kiss you." Lily snorted.

"You can do that on Valentines Day. Right now we're going back to the common room. And then the corridor patrol." She reminded him.

"Do we _have_ to?" he asked, and Lily's eyes flashed dangerously.

"Only joking!" he added hastily. Lily frowned.

_What an idiot. Yet, I've agreed to be the guy's girlfriend! Weird, or what? Oh, well. I guess he can be quite charming when he wants to be. But the rest of the time he's a stuck up moron. Ah, who am I kidding? I'm totally in love! _

"You OK?" asked James, smiling slightly.

"I'm fine." She said hurriedly.

"Cool." He said, absent-mindedly ruffling his hair. Lily growled impatiently.

"It's messy enough already." She said. His hand quickly moved away from his hair.

"Sorry." He said guiltily. "Old habits die hard."

"Eh." Said Lily, shrugging. Truth be told, she really wasn't annoyed at James messing up his hair anymore. She was just used to acting irritated whenever he did so.

_Oh man, Teachers gossiping about us, James acting mature, me growing to LIKE it when he ruffles his hair! What is the world coming to?_

**A/N:** I can't WAIT to write about Valentines Day. Too bad it's about five chapters away - oh well. Next chapter, I'm actually going to go to James' POV again! Whoopee!

rupertisahottie05: I hope the teacher part came out OK. It was fun, but quite awkward, to write, so sorry if it didn't turn out the way you wanted.


	6. Poetry, Quidditch and Chess

**A/N:** Heh heh. I didn't type anything wrong last chapter! Especially not that Lily was thinking _"Yet, I've agreed to be the guy's boyfriend!"_ Instead of "_Yet, I've agreed to be the guy's girlfriend!"_ Well, OK, maybe I did, but I've fixed it now! Thanks to PremzaWitchOfWeirdos for pointing that out. And thanks to rupertisahottie05, DDwelling, riduculouslyriddikulus, zippyfox, PremzaWitchOfWeirdos and EboniteEvans for reviewing chapter 5. (Oh, the start of this chapter takes place in the common room, just incase you can't work it out.)

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing. 0. Aught. Cipher. Goose Egg. Nada. Naught. Nil. Nix. Nought. Null. Zilch. Zip. Whatever other synonyms you can think of, I own 'em all.

_Red hair streaming down your back,_

_You have talents many others lack._

_Every male turns and looks,_

_When you read your many books._

_When you kiss me I'm in heaven,_

_I've loved you since I was eleven._

_You've ta- _

"What're you writing?" asked Sirius casually, leaning over to look at James' parchment. James turned red, and made to crumple up the poem he'd been composing, but Sirius was too fast for him.

Sirius' face turned quickly from triumph at getting hold of James' parchment to disgust at what was written upon it.

"You're writing _poetry_?" he asked. James became a deeper shade of red, but shrugged. Sirius made a small gagging noise, and began to clutch his stomach in raucous peels of laughter.

"What's so funny?" asked Remus, who was playing chess with Peter. Sirius, still unable to talk from laughing, held James' 'poem' out to him. Remus scanned it quickly, and made a strangled sound as though he were fighting a large desire to chortle along with Sirius.

"Awful, isn't it?" asked James in a defeated voice, sinking back into his armchair.

"No, no. It's a very, erm … _individual_ poetic style." said Remus. He looked very close to laughter now.

"Yeah." chuckled Sirius. "The Prongs series – A collection of the worst poetry the world has ever seen!"

"You… you weren't playing to show this to Lily were you?" Remus asked, ignoring Sirius. James shrugged again.

"I s'pose." He admitted. Sirius laughed even harder at this and Remus, who apparently couldn't hold it in any longer, joined in. Peter blinked up at the three of them.

"Mind letting me in on the joke?" Sirius and Remus both pointed to the poem, which was now lying on the floor, Peter picked it up, read it, and giggled too.

"It wasn't honestly that bad, was it?" asked James, a fair few minute later when the other marauders had stopped laughing.

"Yeah, mate. It was." said Sirius, wiping a tear of laughter from his eye. "If you want to stay Lily's boyfriend, I suggest you don't ever,_ ever_ let her see that poem."

"I was thinking of giving it to her, you know, on our date." He mumbled. Sirius, Remus and Peter burst into laughter again.

"Are you serious?" chortled Sirius.

"No, Sirius would be _you_." said Kim, appearing out of nowhere, with Lily at her side.

"Anything we can do for you two?" asked James.

"Yes - Shut up. You're disrupting everyone." said Lily. "What are you all laughing at, anyway?"

James turned red, muttered "Nothing," and nudged his poem under the chess table with his foot. Sirius, Remus and Peter howled with laughter once more at the sight of James' face. Lily and Kim looked perplexed. They turned to each other, shrugged and walked off.

"Look, mate. Just forget poetry, OK? Think of something else for Lily on Valentines Day." said Sirius.

"Like what?" asked James.

"Well, what does Lily enjoy doing?" said Remus, taking a castle with his bishop.

"Check." he added to Peter, who groaned and mumbled;

"I suck at this."

"Uh… Reading?" James suggested meekly.

"Nup." Said Sirius

"Studying?"

"No help." Replied Remus.

"Calling me 'pothead'?"

"Just no."

"Telling people off when they break the rules?"

"Definitely not."

"I don't know!" he said slightly hysterically. _For God's sake, I'm her bloody boyfriend, and I can't think of one ruddy thing she likes to do!_

Sirius seemed to be thinking along much the same lines as James. "For God's sake, you're her bloody boyfriend! Can't you think of one ruddy thing she likes to do?"

"_And_ you've been obsessed with her since first year." added Remus quietly. "You would think you knew at least one thing she enjoys."

"Er, well… Whether I know what she likes to do or not, she loves me and I love her. It doesn't really matter." said James confidently, though ruining the pretence of self-assurance slightly by adding "Does it?"

Sirius said nothing, but raised his eyebrows in an irritating, all-knowing sort of way. Remus and Peter were once again intent upon their game of chess.

"Checkmate." said Remus.

"You win." sighed Peter. "Again. Want to play, James?"

James, who had never been much of a fan of chess, shook his head. He suddenly remembered what he had been doing before thoughts of Lily had interrupted him. Quidditch tactics. He became quickly absorbed in them.

"D'you recon we'd have more of a chance if I made Carlton tail Patil?" James asked Sirius awhile later.

"No way. Patil's too fast. Now if we put _Harrison_…"

"Oh, good," said Lily, walking over to their armchairs once more. "You're doing homework. About time!"

"Homework? No way, this is Quidditch." said James, aghast. Lily rolled her eyes.

"Hey, this is a really important match!" exclaimed James. "If we loose to Ravenclaw, we'll be out of the running!"

"Is Quidditch all the male species ever think about?" she sighed.

"You know it." said James.

"I'll let you in on the way guys minds work, Lily." Said Sirius. "In order of importance; Girls, Quidditch, Food, Mates, Firewhisky, Social Ranking, Gr-"

"OK, I really didn't want to know." said Lily, and rounded on James. "But it's time for patrol duty, you."

"I hate being head-boy." grumbled James. Lily laughed and shook her head, making her red locks fly about her face. James' stomach did a back flip. He really did love it when Lily laughed.

But then he spotted Sirius, Remus and Peter from behind Lily's back. Something about James' thoughts must have shown on his face, as all three were wiggling their eyebrows suggestively.

"C'mon, then, let's go do this." He muttered, feeling heat crawl up his neck. To James' further embarrassment, Sirius wolf-whistled.

"Oh, for God's sake, it's just patrol duty!" said Lily.

"Yeah, patrol duty. You and James, alone in the corridors…" said Sirius, grinning. Lily slapped him lightly on the side of the head.

"Padfoot, that's disgusting!" said Remus.

"And anyway, we won't be alone, exactly." said Lily. "That's the whole point of it, isn't it? That we catch other people?"

_Damn it!_ James found himself thinking. _She's right!_ He followed Lily out of the portrait hole.

"You know, I don't think Sirius was right about the way our minds work." said James seriously.

"Mmm?" asked Lily with a little interest.

"Well, it might be _his_ mind, but mine's more like; Lily Evans, Quidditch, Lily Evans, Food, Lily Evans-"

"You _really_ need to think of a better way to suck up to me." said Lily in an amused voice.

"Is that so?" he asked, and Lily nodded. "How about this?" James did the best puppy dog eyes he could manage. Lily rolled her eyes again, but a smile tugged at her lips.

"Idiot." She sighed. "God knows why I ever agreed to be your girlfriend."

"Because I'm the wittiest, handsomest, most popular guy in this whole school." He informed her. Lily snorted.

"Yeah, right. In your dreams, maybe."

"No, I'm afraid not. You occupy most of my dreams." Lily blushed a faint red, and James smirked.

"Oh, shut it." she snapped.

"Why certainly." said James, bowing low. Lily's eyes rolled for the third, but not the final, time that evening.

**A/N:** Hee hee, I liked this chapter, (If YOU didn't, let me know how to improve) it was way fun to write - especially the poem. Which reminds me; .I swear I don't normally do poetry that bad, but James kind of has to be bad at poetry, doesn't he? Not to be sexist or anything, but he's a guy, of COURSE he's bad at poetry! OK, perhaps I _am_ being sexist. Meh. ;)


	7. Dreams and Reality

**A/N:** OK, this chappy we're on Lily's POV once more, and we've skipped ahead two days so it's Wednesday. Thanks to my good friend Catriona, who gave me some ideas, however random, for the start of this chapter. Oh, and those who reviewed, Tanya J Potter, EboniteEvans, PremzaWitchOfWeirdos, riduculouslyriddikulus, rupertisahottie05, webling-girl05, zippyfox, happy2smile, reg (anon), aurelie1 and scowlingpixie to be specific, are now officially the coolest people on the earth.

**Disclaimer:** J. K. Rowling is a successful woman, a children's author and, like, a billionaire. I'm an odd girl whose only job is to try and hand her homework in on time and has to survive on five to ten bucks a week. Spot the difference!

_Lily was in a garden of roses. Red roses, mainly. A crescent moon hung low in the night sky. She was sitting barefoot in the grass, the wind was rippling in her hair, and a sweet aroma lingered in the air. Everything was perfect. _

_An arm wormed its way around her waist. James was sitting next to her. Grinning, he pulled something out of his pocket. A small, velvet covered box. He opened it. Inside was a beautiful golden ring studded with three finely-cut diamonds. Lily began to cry._

"_Lily, will you make me the luckiest guy in the world?" he asked softly._

"_Oh, James," She sighed. "Of course I will!"_

_He smiled and slid the ring on her finger. It sparkled in the moonlight. She turned to him and kissed him deeply. Everything felt so wonderful._

"Oi, Lils! Time to get up!" yelled Kim across the room.

"Mmf?" asked Lily sleepily.

"It's time for school!"

"I was having a nice dream!" she complained.

"I _wonder_ what it was about?" said Emmeline sarcastically from her own bed. "Or should I say _who_?"

"Shut it." snapped Lily. Emmeline shrugged and she, Alice and Tara left the dormitory.

"What've we got first?" asked Kim, attacking her hair with a wide-toothed comb.

"Potions." yawned Lily. She reluctantly got out of bed and began to get dressed.

"Great." muttered Kim. "I'll bet Slughorn bogs us down with loads of homework."

"He's not _that_ bad." replied Lily, pulling her school blouse on.

"Easy for you to say - you're his all time favourite student!" said Kim exasperatedly. Lily shrugged, and shoved her robes on.

After Lily had gotten dressed the two of them made their way to breakfast. There were only twenty or so people left there, most students had left to get their things for first period.

"What took you two so long?" asked James as Lily and Kim sat down.

"Lily here slept in." said Kim, buttering some toast. Lily felt her face getting slightly hot.

"I was tired." she muttered, hoping no one would notice her blushing. James shrugged but Kim, possibly remembering what Lily had said about a dream, sniggered. Lily glared at her.

"OK, I'm finished." said Kim with her mouth full.

"Ready to go, Lily?" asked Peter. Lily nodded and stuffed a crust of toast into her mouth. All six of them left the Great Hall and began walking to the dungeons.

Class had just started when they entered Dungeon 3. Slughorn looked up as they walked in with a questioning look.

"I'm sorry we're late, Professor Slughorn. I, um, had patrol duty last night and accidentally slept in." explained Lily. Slughorn smiled at her.

"Quite alright," he said cheerfully, "Take your seats." They did so. "Now, as I was saying, if I were to use a bezoar in our antidote it would not counteract Veritaserum as substantially as the powdered unicorn horn. This is because…?" he looked at the class expectantly. Two hands went up, Lily's and Snape's. As usual, Slughorn pointed to Lily.

"Because Veritaserum does not contain poison, therefore bezoars are not as powerful against it." She stated.

"Couldn't have put it better myself." smiled Slughorn, and Snape looked disgruntled. "So, if you would all kindly turn to page 286 of your text books, to the antidote to Veritaserum. The architeuthis tentacle is in the supply cupboard. Let's get cracking, then!"

Lily flicked to page 286 and retrieved all the ingredients listed in the book. She then lit a fire under her cauldron and began to chop some roots.

"Can I borrow a few fish spleens?" asked Kim. Lily nodded. "Thanks."

The potion was quite difficult and it took Lily's undivided attention to concoct it properly. She was quite relieved when it began to steam and she was required to let it simmer for five minutes.

Lily scanned the classroom absentmindedly as her potion gurgled. A few Ravenclaw girls sat gossiping about her and James (so what else was new?). Peter was wincing and mopping poisonous-looking purple goop from the front of his robes. James and Sirius were talking in low voices, quite oblivious to their cauldrons spitting violently beside them. Remus was stirring his potion with an expression of utmost concentration on his face, as was Snape. Another Slytherin from Lily's Arithmancy class was lazily pouring yellow liquid into his potion. And two Hufflepuff's were looking with despair at what Lily supposed was once a cauldron.

"Do I add the leech juice or the snake skin first?" muttered Kim from beside her.

"Leech juice. I think." replied Lily.

"Yeah, it is." said Kim as skimmed the open page. "Oh, by the way… when are we going to go shopping?"

"For my date?" asked Lily, checking her cauldron.

"No, for _my_ date." said Kim sarcastically.

"Hey, we could go shopping for the sake of it!" exclaimed Lily indignantly.

"Yeah, whatever." said Kim carelessly. "As Valentines Day is next weekend, we could go to Hogsmeade this Saturday."

"James' Quidditch match is on Saturday." said Lily. "I don't personally care too much, but-"

"He'd want you to go." said Kim, grinning.

"Mmm, and Sirius would want _you_ to go." taunted Lily, also grinning.

"Shut up!" Kim glared at her and nodded meaningfully towards the Marauders, sitting two rows ahead of them.

Lily shrugged and turned to see her potion bubbling merrily. She took this as her cue to begin to grind her beetles.

As the bell rung, the students packed up their books, corked samples of their potions and put them on Slughorn's desk for marking. On the way up to the front of the classroom, Snape tripped and spilt the blue potion all down the front of his robes.

"Whoops! Better get another sample, hey Snivellus?" laughed James, pocketing his wand. Snape demonstrated a rude hand gesture in James and Sirius' direction. He attempted to stand up, but slipped in the potion under his feet. James, Sirius and Peter roared with laughter. Remus tried to hide a grin.

"Give it a rest, guys." sighed Kim. The Marauders ignored her.

"Oh dear! Looks like _someone_ has already drained his cauldron for him!" said Sirius with mock sympathy.

"We're going to be late for Transfiguration!" exclaimed Lily, checking her watch. As she saw the time she swore so badly that everyone, even Snape, stared. "We're _already_ late!"

And with that, Lily, Kim, James, Sirius, Remus and Peter sprinted from the room. Kim, who had always been a good runner, was a few paces ahead of the rest of them.

"Hurry up!" she called back to them. "Maybe McGonagall won't be as mad if- OUCH!" She had run into another, younger, student.

"Sorry." Kim apologised as Sirius' younger brother, Regulus, got to his feet and dusted himself off.

"Watch where you're going, will you?" he snapped, showing no sign that he had seen his older sibling.

"Why don't you watch out for _her_, scumbag?" Sirius snarled back. The two of them gave each other looks of purest loathing. Lily felt very awkward.

"Get lost." glared Regulus.

"Gladly." Said Sirius, and stalked off towards Transfiguration. _Why were Sirius and his brother acting like enemies?_ Wondered Lily.

"What was that all about?" asked Kim, with an expression as confused as Lily felt. James, Remus and Peter exchanged meaningful looks.

"Sirius doesn't… get on too well with his family." explained Remus.

"What?" asked Lily and Kim together.

"He ran away from home last year." said James in a but-don't-tell-anyone voice. "Stayed the summer at my place."

"Oh my God." whispered Kim. Peter nodded in agreement.

Lily, too, felt terrible. Sirius seemed such a cheerful, carefree character. He joked around and had a loud laugh. No one with eyes and ears would have thought he had it so hard.

"We'd best get to Transfiguration, otherwise we'll be in detention for the rest of our lives." said James after a long pause. Kim nodded and the five of them ran.

Professor McGonagall gave them all extra homework for being late, but none of them cared. Each of them looked over at Sirius with concern as soon as they entered the room. He sat alone in the corner with an expression of utmost anger of his face. Yet, at the same time, he looked upset.

"Wands out, please. The incantation is _Animadverto_." instructed Professor McGonagall. James went to side beside Sirius, followed by Remus and Peter. Lily and Kim sat near them.

Lily saw James say something to make Sirius laugh, but Lily couldn't hear what above the cries of the class trying to turn themselves invisible.

"D'you recon he's OK?" asked Kim. Lily glanced across at the Marauders.

"He looks alright." she replied.

"McGonagall." warned Kim. Both of them raised their wands.

"Animadverto!" Lily managed to turn all but her left ear invisible. Kim's head was still floating in mid air. Professor McGonagall sighed and waved her wand. Their bodies reappeared.

----------

Lily sat in the Common Room by herself. Kim was at Astronomy, and Lily was simply staring into the fire. Her conscience was telling her to begin on her extra homework, but she was enjoying the rare relaxation time.

"What's up?" asked James' voice (she knew it really well now) from behind her. She turned around to look at him.

"Nothing. Why?" she asked. James shrugged.

"Remus and Peter are playing chess _again_, and I'm bored."

"You could always do your homework." hinted Lily. James rolled his eyes in a _you wish_ sort of way. Lily yawned.

"I think I'll go to bed."

"I'll come up with you if you want." said James, eyebrows wiggling.

"You sexist pig! Just because I'm you're girlfriend does _not _mean you can speak to me like-"

"Yeah, yeah. Skip the lecture." said James, waving a hand carelessly. Lily gave him the evil eye. "I was only joking." He muttered.

"And anyway, you couldn't come up to my dormitory - even if I let you!"

"Oh yeah." joked James (at least, Lily hoped he was joking.) "Stupid spell."

**A/N:** Since I first posted this fic, I've wanted to have a scene with Sirius and Regulus. And I didn't know how to end this chapter, so why not? It was quite fun to have Sirius' two most touchy subjects in my fic (his family and Kim) thrown in together. Poor Padfoot. But I know what would cheer him up! Cough-snoggingkim-cough!


	8. Obsessions

**A/N:** Yeah, you know I'm going to thank my reviewers (who this time are zippyfox, happy2smile, Ebonite Evans, riduculouslyriddikulus, PremzaWitchOfWeirdos, rupertisahottie05, webling-girl05 and russianchikk). Anyway, Dudes, Dudettes, I'd better get on with the story!

**Disclaimer:** Look closely: FANfiction.

Lily's time with James became very limited very quickly. The Grand-Final-deciding Quidditch match was only a day away now, and if James wasn't at practise, he was discussing tactics with Sirius.

There was only one way she could survive barely speaking a word to James for two days. And that was daydreaming about Valentines Day. On the evening of February the fourteenth, the two of them would be quite alone. With no Quidditch, or homework, to distract them from one other.

It was quite amazing how much James asking her out had irritated her in the past, yet how much she was now looking forward to a date with him. But then, that was before she had realised that she did, infact, like James back. That was before she had felt his lips upon hers.

But she _hadn't_ felt his lips upon hers in what seemed like forever to Lily. Even though it was only a few days. On Friday night, she told this to Kim while they were half-studying in the common room with Remus and Peter. Kim responded with;

"Chill out, Lils! He's Quidditch captain, of course he's preoccupied! And besides, I'm sure you'll get _plenty_ of kisses next Sunday."

Lily blushed as Remus, Peter and Kim grinned. "Oh, be quiet." retorted Lily. "It's not like _you _wouldn't be this excited if it were you and Sir-"

"SHUT IT!" yelled Kim, turning red. Remus and Peter burst out laughing as Kim looked more and more like a beetroot. Lily chuckled.

"It's OK, Kim." said Remus simply. "We already know."

"How?" asked Kim, glaring at Lily.

"We guessed." said Peter.

"Oh." Kim sighed in a defeated manner and sunk back into her armchair.

"I _told_ you everyone knew." Lily pointed out.

"It is pretty obvious." said Remus.

"Can we _please_ change the subject?" asked Kim.

"OK," said Peter, scanning his parchment. "What's the twelfth use of dragon's blood?"

"No idea." said Kim. There was a pause in which they all turned back to their essays.

"Is it really _that_ obvious?" Kim burst out about a minute later. Lily smirked.

"I thought you wanted to change the subject?" remarked Remus in an amused voice.

"Well, I do… _but_ – I wanted to know if he…" but she trailed off hopelessly. "Forget it."

Lily felt an enormous amount of pity for her best friend. She and Sirius _had_ to get together!

"Did you read the _Daily Prophet_ this morning?" asked Remus, obviously wanting to change the subject.

"No." said Lily. "Why?"

"There was a mass murder down near London." said Remus. "Fifteen people dead."

"What?" asked Kim, who seemed to have forgotten Sirius in light of this news.

"Yeah." nodded Peter..

"Who killed them?" asked Lily.

"You-Know-Who." said Remus.

"Oh." replied Lily. "Should've known." You-Know-Who had first appeared in the papers three year previously, and had been conducting large acts of terrorism ever since.

"Wasn't he the one that got them werewolves to attack those kids?" inquired Kim. Lily felt Remus stiffen beside her.

"I think so." said Peter, who had also glanced at Remus. There was a moment of tension.

"What?" asked Kim, staring at all three of them suspiciously.

"Nothing." They all lied quickly.

"Then why are you both looking at R-"

"So have you done your Charms homework?" said Lily hurriedly.

"We have Charms homework?" asked Peter.

"Yup." said Remus. Peter slapped his forehead.

"What is it? I completely forgot! I'm a total idiot!"

"Yeah, but we already knew that." said someone behind them, and they all turned around. There were Sirius and James.

"Finished obsessing about Quidditch for tonight?" asked Lily.

"Uh-huh." said James. "We're going to turn in early. Big game tomorrow."

"D'you guys know what the twelfth use of dragon's blood is?" Peter asked them.

"No." said James.

"Not a clue." said Sirius. Peter sighed, opened a thick, boring-looking book and began to scan the index.

"Night all." bade Sirius.

"Mmm." said James, and they both walked towards the staircase.

"Why are guys obsessed with sport?" Kim asked Lily. Lily shrugged.

"You call _that_ obsessed?" asked Remus. "Just say the word 'Lily' to James. _Then_ you'll see obsessed." Kim and Peter laughed as Lily flushed.

"Or the word 'chocolate' to Remus." chuckled Peter.

"Chocolate?" joked Remus. "Where?" The girls laughed.

"You can't deny they've overdone the tactic planning just a _little_ bit, though." said Lily.

"I didn't deny it!" exclaimed Remus. They laughed again. Lily yawned.

"I'll probably go to bed, too."

"I'll go as well," agreed Kim. "We might as well get an early night when we can." And with that the two girls left the common room, got into bed and waited for sleep to come.

As Lily lay in the darkness, she thought about what Remus had said. She had always known that James had an unhealthyobsession with her. But now she liked him back, she couldn't keep her thoughts off of him for five minutes! There was only one logical explanation; she was obsessed with _him_ too.

**A/N:** OK, so I know this chapter wasn't the best, but I'm just too excited about writing the Quidditch match to write it properly! I _know_ it was short – I'm sorry! It was a kind of bits-and-pieces sort of chapter, but I wanted to introduce Voldemort somehow.


	9. The Big Game

**A/N:** Yay! I'm finally writing this chapter! OK, Now I'll just thank DDwelling, riduculouslyriddikulus, frenchfriesrule, zippyfox, Tahirisolo90, rupertisahottie05, scowlingpixie, PremzaWitchOfWeirdos and webling-girl05 for reviewing. A lot of you seem to think Sirius is clueless about Kim's, er, _feelings_. Well… I suppose he is, but all I have to say is; watch out for Valentines Day!

**Disclaimer:** You guys should know how this goes by now…

James shovelled down breakfast on Saturday morning. He'd never been the I'm-too-nervous-to-eat type. In fact, if he was nervous he was most likely to eat _more_ than usual. Sirius was, as per normal, sitting next to him, also piling a great deal of food onto his plate.

"You guys probably shouldn't eat so much," said Kim. "You'll throw up half way through the game."

"Nah. We won't." said Sirius.

"Us Quidditch players have stomachs of iron!" said James, punching his belly to demonstrate his point. He felt the wind get knocked out of him. "Oof." He wheezed, clutching his stomach. "Maybe not."

Lily laughed. "You're an idiot, James. You know that, don't you?"

"Yep." He replied. "It's one of my many charms."

"You mean it's one of your _only_ charms." said Kim, rolling her eyes.

"Hey!" exclaimed James, as Sirius checked his watch.

"We've got to go." He told James.

"Sure," said James. "Wish us luck."

"Good luck!" cried Lily, Kim, Remus and Peter in unison. The two Quidditch players had already walked halfway across the Entrance Hall when James remembered something.

"Wait a sec." He told Sirius, and walked back to the others, stopping in front of Lily. "Good luck kiss?" he asked hopefully.

"Sure." said Lily, and kissed him on the cheek. _Aww man! I meant on the lips!_ Thought James. Regretfully, he waved a last goodbye and went back to Sirius.

"You went all the way back to the table just to get one kiss from Lily?" asked Sirius, shaking his head. "Man, you're nuts."

"Nuts about _her_, anyway." replied James.

"No," said Sirius. "You're just plain nuts."

"It's a bit rich coming from you, isn't it?" asked James. Sirius laughed.

"True."

----------

"OK, guys. Let's go." said James, looking around at his team. There was Kate Burnett (the Keeper) Sirius, and David Carlton (the Beaters), Douglas Harrison (the Seeker) and Tara Light, Christopher Adams and James himself as the Chasers.

The Gryffindor Quidditch Team left the change rooms and walked out onto the pitch to loud applause. There was a cloud of scarlet at one end of the pitch and a mass of blue next to it. Then there were the Slytherin and Hufflepuff crowds, which were scattered with both colours.

James looked up at the sky. The weather was perfect for Quidditch. It was overcast, so the sun wouldn't get into their eyes, yet it was not raining. His stomach churned nervously. Kim was right; he shouldn't have eaten so much for breakfast.

"Captains, shake hands." Said the referee. James obliged and shook hands with the Ravenclaw captain, a girl called Susie Goodall. "Mount your brooms."

The quaffle was thrown into the air and the fourteen players swooped upwards. Tara caught the quaffle and passed it to James. James passed to Christopher. Chris attempted to pass it back to Tara, but a Ravenclaw seized it.

"And it's Ravenclaw in possession." Boomed the commentator, Jonathan Martin. "Northcutt with the quaffle. He's speeding up the pitch – Watch out Harrison!" James spun around in time to see his Seeker dive out of the way of a black blur. "Gryffindor Seeker, Douglas Harrison, almost gets pummelled by a bludger. OK, Gryffindor back in possession. Nope, Ravenclaw in possession. OK, Thompson passes to Northcutt. Northcutt shoots! Oh, damn, he scores!" There was a loud cheer from the bluer areas of the stands. James swore and sped towards the goal posts. Kate passed the quaffle to James, who turned sharply in the opposite direction.

"And Gryffindor captain, James Potter, with the quaffle. I heard he's going out with Lily Evans, now. Lucky him – that girl's gorgeous."

"Too right." muttered James, throwing the ball to Chris.

"Get on with it!" roared the Ravenclaw supporters, in response to Martin's commentary.

"Right, right. Adams with the quaffle. Adams passes to Potter. Potter scores!"

"Yes!" James punched the air as the scarlet crowd cheered. A Ravenclaw beater hit a bludger at him. He dropped his broom slightly as Sirius belted it at the opposing Keeper.

"Thanks!" yelled James, and Sirius grinned.

"Ravenclaw back in possession. Chaser Pullman shoots!" James crossed his fingers on his broom handle. "Ooh, nice save there from Gryffindor Keeper, Burnett. Passes to Light, and – _Is that the snitch?_"

James turned to see the two Seekers streaking as fast as they could upwards. The crowd held it's breath. Douglas was in front. But only just.

There was an "Oooh" of disappointment from the crowd as a bludger sped in front of the two Seekers. It just missed the Ravenclaw, but hit Douglas in the fingers. He winced. James called for time out.

"Are you OK, mate?" asked James as the whistle was blown.

"Yeah," replied Douglas while the rest of the team gathered around them.

"Did you break anything?" asked Tara.

"No – I only bent my fingers back." said Douglas, flexing his fingers gingerly.

"Ouch." said Sirius sympathetically.

"Are you ready to play on?" asked James. Douglas nodded. James gave the signal and they all flew back to their posts again.

"And apparently the Gryffindor Seeker is well enough to continue!" yelled Martin. "It didn't look too serious, anyway. OK, Ravenclaw in possession. Quaffle dropped by Thompson. Caught by Adams! Adams speeds to the goalposts. Oh, tough shot." Chris was, indeed, surrounded by Ravenclaws. He passed to Tara, who scored.

"That's twenty-ten to Gryffindor!" called Martin. The Gryffindors cheered and the Ravenclaws booed.

Ravenclaw scored two more goals and gained the lead. When Gryffindor finally acquired the quaffle again, Chris missed. Tara managed to seize it again, and she passed it to James. As James caught it he heard a faint voice yell "Go James!"

_That sounded like Lily's voice! Is it Lily? It came from the Gryffindor crowd, it's probably her! _James peered over the quaffle, wondering if she was watching him. He'd forgotten entirely that he was still speeding forwards on a broomstick.

"Prongs!" yelled Sirius. James jolted back to his senses and turned back to face the front of his broomstick just in time to see the goalpost right in front of his face. With a loud clang he crashed into it. Someone screamed as James lost grip on his broomstick and began to fall into darkness…

----------

"He'll be OK, it'll just take a while for him to come around."

"Lucky nothing worse happened!"

"Why'd he loose concentration like that?"

"Maybe it was the broom…"

James woke in a comfortable hospital bed. His head had a dull ache to it. His eyelids felt heavy as he opened them groggily. Around him stood the entire Quidditch team, Remus, Peter, Kim and Lily.

_Lily…_With a jolt James realised what happened. He was filled with shame, and felt himself turning red.

"He lives!" joked Sirius in a loud voice.

"Yeah," muttered James. "But could you keep it down? My head's killing me."

"Oops." said Sirius, less loudly.

"Are you alright?" asked Lily in a small voice. She looked very pale.

"Well, I've felt worse." said James.

"What happened?" asked Remus. "What distracted you?"

"Oh…" said James, skimming his mind for any believable lie. "I thought I saw the snitch. I was going to yell at Harrison to go grab it, but then I remembered I was still flying forwards. And you saw the rest."

It must have been a credible enough lie, because everyone in the hospital wing nodded their heads. Only Sirius was looking at him as though he wasn't quite convinced.

"Anyway… what happened?" he asked hastily. "Did Ravenclaw win?"

"No, thankfully. Douglas managed to catch the snitch a few minutes after you ran into the goal post." said Chris. James smiled. _Awesome! We're in the Grand Final!_

"The final score was a hundred and eighty to ninety." said Sirius.

"Honestly, James has just had his skull cracked in two and STILL all you can think about is Quidditch!" exclaimed Kim. "_How_ does that work?"

"Easy," answered Sirius. "We're guys."

"I see your point." said Kim.

A few minutes later, James' guests were told to leave, as he 'needed rest'. Majority of the crowd did, but both Lily and Sirius remained.

"Yeah?" he asked them both.

"I just wanted to make doubly sure you were OK." said Lily.

"Oh. Well, I'm fine."

"Good. Because you scared me." Lily leant in and kissed him. Boy oh boy, if he loved it when she laughed, that was nothing, NOTHING, compared to when they snogged. Her lips were so soft and her hands were so warm and everything felt so right.

Twenty bliss-filled seconds later, Sirius cleared his throat meaningfully. James knew it was time to break apart, but he still found it hard to pull away. He always did. He saw Lily blush as she gave his hand a squeeze and left the hospital wing.

"So… what _really_ distracted you?" asked Sirius as the door closed.

"What do you mean?" answered James, a little too quickly. Sirius raised an eyebrow.

"I mean, what was it that really made you crash into the goal post?" said Sirius. James looked down shamefully and began to turn red again.

"Lily." He mumbled. Sirius doubled up in laughter.

"_I knew it!_ I _knew_ it was her you were thinking about!"

"You did? How? Was it obvious?"

"Only to me - you made the Lily Face."

"The _what_?"

"The Lily Face. The same face you always make when you're daydreaming about her." explained Sirius. "It's kind of like…" he put on a dreamy, distant expression. James felt disgruntled.

"If you knew what it was that made me loose control, why did you bother to ask?"

"I just wanted to make you admit it." shrugged Sirius. James glared at him.

"You are so evil." He accused. Sirius waved a hand carelessly.

"I try."

It was about then when Madame Pomfrey realised Sirius was still there, and shooed him away. The hospital wing was very quiet when no one else was with you. Remus had to get very bored, coming here once a month. James made a mental promise to visit him more often.

_Tick! Tick! Tick!_ Went James' watch. _Throb, Throb, Throb,_ Went his headache. He tried to look out the window, but all he could see was the lake. He tried to recite Golpapott's Sixth Law in his head, but had forgotten it entirely. He even tried to read a book, but then remembered he didn't have one. So James did what he always did when bored. Thought about Lily.

And he kept on thinking about his lovely redhead until he drifted off to sleep.

**A/N:** Man, I've had those ideas since chapte**r** two - it felt r**e**ally good to finally ha**v**e wr**i**tten them. Hee h**e**e, that **w**as fun


	10. How to Make McGonagall Shout

**A/N:** Hey guys, what's up? Apart from the roof, I mean. Here's another chapter for you, my faithful readers. Oh yeah, to those who reviewed, namely DDwelling, PremzaWitchOfWeirdos, EboniteEvans, zippyfox, Tahirisolo90 and rupertisahottie05, Thankyou.

**Disclaimer:** I am merely enslaved by the enchanting works of the deity that is J.K. Rowling.

To Lily's delight, James was allowed to leave the hospital wing the next day. He was still slightly dazed about what had happened, but apparently his headache was gone and he said he felt back to normal. Lily was glad that the Quidditch match was over; she could now enjoy Sirius and James' company again. And the Grand Final wasn't for weeks.

Sunday afternoon found Lily, Kim and the Marauders lazing by the lake. The plan had been to do their homework, but, as Sirius said, "The weather's _way_ too good to be bored." So they merely sat under a shady tree, the grass cool beneath them, and they chatted about whatever came to them.

"Did you know they use billywig stings in Fizzing Whizbees?" asked James lazily, leaning back against the trunk of the tree.

"Really?" asked Kim.

"Yeuch!" exclaimed Peter.

"Nah, it's not that bad." said Sirius. "They take away the deadliest of the poison by drying the sting out. Then they-"

"OK, Sirius, please shut up before you put us all off Fizzing Whizbees forever." said Lily.

"I'm_ already_ put off them forever." said Kim.

"Yeah, thanks a lot, Padfoot." said Remus.

"Hey!" said Sirius indignantly. Lily rolled her eyes.

"Moony, what's the time?" asked Peter. Remus checked his watch.

"Quarter Past Six." He replied.

"It's that late already?" asked Kim.

"We should probably go to dinner soon, then." remarked Lily.

"Let's go now, I'm starved." said James.

"Me too." agreed Sirius. They stood up and walked to the castle.

The Great Hall was, as usual, lovely and warm. As they sat down, Lily saw it was roast pork for dinner.

"Yum! Pork!" exclaimed Kim.

"Yuck! Pork!" said Sirius. Kim laughed.

----------

After thirds, Lily felt stuffed. She leant back in her chair lazily, listening to Remus and Kim's conversation about Dragon Breeding.

"I heard they're doing a breeding program in Romania. Good thing too, if they make it illegal _everywhere_, they'll all die out…"

"Did you see his face as he crashed into the goal post?" said a particularly loud voice, that attracted Lily's attention. Lily, Kim, Sirius, Remus and Peter all looked at James.

James ignored their eyes. He turned around and Lily saw him scowl. The other five swivelled their heads aswell. The voice had come from a seventh year Slytherin, Bertram Aubrey, laughing with his mates. Lily was sure his loud voice was deliberate, so as to provoke James into doing something stupid in front of the teachers.

"What an idiot!" continued Aubrey.

"Look who's talking!" called James carelessly. Aubrey looked up.

"Huh!" he retorted. "At least I don't ogle at a mudblood wherever I go!"

James' reaction was not so careless this time. His chair crashed to the floor as he stood up, his face filled with fury. "How dare you." He said dangerously, as the people sitting near them stared.

"James, it doesn't matter! Sit down!" hissed Lily, tugging at his sleeve. Although James seemed to have, she _hadn't_ forgotten that they were in a hall full of teachers.

"Yeah, it's a good thing her loser of a friend didn't call out," said Aubrey, turning back to his mates. "Black would have been knocked cold, too! And we all know what a _pity_ that would have been!" Some Slytherins laughed. Sirius got to his feet too, his fists clenched.

"At least we have good looking girls to 'ogle at' in Gryffindor!" Sirius yelled. "Which is more that I can say for Slytherin!" The hall became very quiet.

Aubrey snorted. "Good looking? Don't make me laugh! The only thing uglier than them _I've_ ever seen is dragon sick!"

It all happened very fast. One moment, Aubrey was smirking triumphantly, the next James and Sirius had both cried an incantation and Aubrey's head was growing, growing, growing until it was at least twice the normal size.

"Ha!" yelled James, hi-fiving with Sirius. Lily tried her hardest to keep her face stern, and not giggle and cheer with the other Gryffindors. Aubrey did look quite comical. All in all, the situation would have been an amusing one… if it weren't for the teachers.

"Black! Potter!" shouted Professor McGonagall. James and Sirius' smiles faded. The giggling instantly died away. "To my office! _Now!_"

Lily half expected Professor McGonagall to grab them by the ears and drag them away. But she merely waved her wand and restored Aubrey's head to the normal size. She then followed James and Sirius out of the hall. There were a few moments of silence, and then the chatter slowly rose again. Lily, Kim, Remus and Peter agreed silently to leave the Great Hall.

"James and Sirius are _so_ busted." said Peter, as they walked to the Common Room.

"I know! That hex is illegal!" exclaimed Remus.

"WHAT?" exploded Lily. "It's _illegal?_" Remus nodded sheepishly.

"McGonagall isn't the only one who's going to be mad with those two!" fumed Lily. But deep down inside her, she found it all quite funny. And she was flattered that James had stood up for her like that. Apparently, Kim felt the same.

"Don't be too hard on them, Lily." She said. "They _were_ defending us, after all."

"And it _was_ a Slytherin." added Peter. Lily laughed.

"Password?" asked the Fat Lady. They had reached the Portrait Hole.

"Dingbat." said Kim. The Fat Lady swung forwards.

The common room was blissfully empty, everyone was still at dinner. The group collapsed into their favourite armchairs. For a few minutes, none of them talked, but merely stared into the fire.

"Are they _ever_ going to get back?" asked Kim.

Right on cue, The Fat Lady's portrait creaked open, and Sirius and James stepped into the Common Room. Both looked quite pleased with themselves.

"You didn't get into trouble then?" asked Lily, gazing upon the two boys' large smiles.

"Oh no, we got double detention." said Sirius cheerfully.

"So why are your grins so big?" asked Kim with an apprehensive look on her face.

"Because we humiliated Aubrey in front of the entire school." explained James, slumping down upon a crimson armchair. "_Plus,_ we got McGonagall to shout."

"You're _glad_ that a teacher shouted at you?" said Kim with disbelief.

"Yeah." said Sirius. "She only shouts if she's really, _really_ mad."

"So you're pleased that a teacher was mad at you?" exclaimed Lily.

"Yep." said James and Sirius in unison

"That reminds me," began Kim. "How did you _both_ do that hex?"

"Well," said James with a puzzled expression. "We said the incantation, then we waved our wands and-"

"I mean how did you both do the _same_ hex?" said Kim, rolling her eyes.

"Oh…" said James.

"Telepathic power between two best mates." replied Sirius. Lily raised her eyebrows.

"We were planning to use that hex on Snape." said Remus. "I suppose it was the first one that came to both of their minds."

"Uh… yeah. That too." said Sirius. At that point, the portrait swung open again and twenty or so students came into the Common Room, back from dinner.

"Hey, James! Sirius! Nice spell work!" called Alice.

"Sucks to Slytherin!" yelled Emmeline. A few other people congratulated James and Sirius. Lily sighed.

"It beats me why you guys are popular because you hurt others." She wondered aloud.

"We're not popular because we hurt people!" exclaimed Sirius. Lily raised her eyebrows "And anyway, those 'others' are usually Slytherins!" he added hastily.

"_And_ we were defending girls in Gryffindor!" pouted James. "You two especially!"

"I don't care that he called me a mudblood." said Lily.

"And _I_ don't care that he called me a loser." said Kim. "Judging by his clothes, he doesn't know the _meaning_ of loser."

"But," finished Lily "It _was_ really nice of you boys to rush to our defence like that." And she wrapped her arms around James and kissed him in thanks, ignoring the wolf-whistles she could hear from the other side of the Common Room.

"Wow. I think I'll go round defending you more often if that's the reward I get!" laughed James.

"Where's my reward, huh?" joked Sirius, looking expectantly at Kim. Kim giggled and bowed her head to brush a brown curl away from her face. Lily knew her best friend well enough to guess that it was to hide a blush.

"Of course!" Kim exclaimed, finally looking up. "How could I forget?" Sirius looked startled. Kim waved her wand and a chocolate bar appeared in mid-air. Sirius replaced his startled face with a pleased one. Lily, James, Remus and Peter burst into laughter.

"Good enough for me!" Sirius grinned, ripping open the wrapper.

"Can I have some?" asked Remus.

"No." said Sirius, gobbling down chocolate.

"Please?"

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"Please?"

"No!"

"Please?"

"NO!"

"Please?"

"FOR GOD'S SAKE, MOONY! THE ANSWER IS NO!"

"Sorry." said Remus, looking down sadly. There was a pause.

"_Please?_"

----------

Peter yawned. It was around midnight, and there were only a few people left in the Common Room. Lily, Kim and the Marauders were playing Exploding Snap. Remus lay down a card as there was a crack and the cards exploded, flying everywhere.

"I've always hated that game." He grumbled.

"That's because you always loose!" taunted James. Remus kept a dignified silence.

The fire beside Lily's knees slowly died. "I don't know about you lot, but _I'm_ going to bed." She told them.

"Kiss goodnight?" asked James. Lily gave him a quick kiss on the lips as everyone else stood up.

"You coming to bed, Kim?" she asked.

"That sounds _really_ wrong." muttered Peter. Both Lily and Kim ignored him.

"I'll pack up the cards." Kim replied, indicating the many cards littered on the floor of the Common Room.

"Nah - I will, Kim." said Sirius. "They're my cards, anyway."

"Want any help?" asked Kim. Sirius shrugged.

"OK… I'll go up to bed, then." She replied, also shrugging. Sirius looked slightly downcast. Kim left and Lily followed. But she didn't leave in time to miss James say to Sirius;

"But Padfoot, they were _my_ cards!"

**A/N:** How many of you worked out that the hex on Aubrey was the one mentioned in HBP? (_James Potter and Sirius Black. Apprehended using an illegal hex upon Bertram Aubrey. Aubrey's head twice normal size. Double detention. _pg 497, UK edition) OK, I know PremzaW.O.W. knew, coz I told her I was going to use it, but whatever. You should have known that I wouldn't be able to come up with a name as weird as Bertram!


	11. Full Moon

**A/N:** OK, this is the last chapter before the 14th of February. I SWEAR! And it's a fairly short chapter too, because I'm writing an extra long one next time, plus it's too exciting for me to write this one too long. And virtual cookies for elisabeth, Tahirisolo90, PremzaWitchOfWeirdos, frenchfriesrule, russianchikk, DDwelling, rupertisahottie05, Jenna, Michaela, and zippyfox.

**Disclaimer:** Am I richer that the queen? No. Am I the best writer anyone's ever seen? No. Am I a goddess on earth? Er, no.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday passed without anything much interesting happening. Unless you counted Peter almost being eaten by a plant in Herbology interesting. He came out alright – just a little scratched and stunned.

On Thursday night, it was the Full Moon. Lily and Kim sat in the Common Room, chatting. Lily kept wondering if James was OK. She knew he had experienced Full Moons with Remus a million times before. And he'd told her what had occurred over Christmas was the worst thing that had ever happened to any of them. Still…

_That doesn't mean something worse isn't going to happen tonight. _She thought. In her mind's eye she saw an unconscious stag lying on the floor of the Shrieking Shack, a dog and a rat watching on helplessly as a wolf lowered its fangs…

"What's up, Lily?" asked Kim. Lily jumped, startled. She felt slightly sick.

"I'm fine. Just… tired." She lied.

"Oh. Me too." said Kim. "Where are the guys tonight?"

"Probably off on some prank." Lily shrugged, trying to get her mind off whatever was going on in the Shrieking Shack.

"Didn't James tell you where he was going?" asked Kim disbelievingly.

"No, that's why I think it's a prank. If it was he wouldn't tell me – I'd tell him off!" explained Lily. _Wow, _she thought _I'm really getting good at this lying thing!_

"Good point." laughed Kim. "You might even get so mad you'd cancel your date!"

"Fat chance! I can't _wait_ until Sunday." sighed Lily. The image of the wounded stag was replaced with an image of James moving closer and closer to her, some of the houses of Hogsmeade twinkling in the background.

"What're you thinking about?" asked Kim, grinning evilly. Something about Lily's thoughts must have shown on her face.

"James." She replied, blushing furiously.

"Well, duh." said Kim, still grinning. "I meant what was he _doing_ in your… fantasy?"

"Oh, Kim - that's disgusting!" she cried, slapping her best friend on the side of the head.

"What _was_ he doing, then?" Kim asked.

"He, er… kissing me." replied Lily, blushing harder than ever. Kim giggled.

"Is he a good kisser?"

"Perfect." Lily whispered. "Every time we kiss, it's like… like we're the only ones on this earth. Like the heavens themselves open up above us."

"That's _so_ romantic." sighed Kim. "It never happened when Sean and I kissed. It felt nice… but nothing like you just described it." Sean had been Kim's boyfriend in sixth year.

Lily shrugged. "Maybe it's just how I feel. Or maybe you only feel it when you're kissing your soul mate."

"D'you think James is your soul mate?" asked Kim with interest.

"If he isn't, I don't know who is. He's funny and kind and caring and just… wonderful."

"Funny that," said Kim sarcastically. "I was always under the impression you thought of him as an 'arrogant, bullying toerag'."

"Well, he _was_ an arrogant bullying toerag." laughed Lily. "But this year he's become slightly less conceited."

"Only slightly." said Kim.

"But I wouldn't have him any other way." grinned Lily. "What's James without his bigheaded attitude?"

Kim's jaw dropped. "If James wasn't bigheaded… he'd be_ Remus!_"

Lily laughed. "Yeah, he would, wouldn't he?"

"Except James would have to be a bit smarter." added Kim. They both giggled.

"I love James for who he is," said Lily. "And he's just not himself if he's not egotistical."

"And partly why I like Sirius so much is because he's such a self-centred git." commented Kim, blushing slightly.

"Oh, so you _do_ like him?" asked Lily with mock surprise.

"I thought we'd already established that."

"We had. I just love making you admit it."

"Oh, shut up." grumbled Kim.

"So…?" asked Lily.

"So what?" said Kim, looking confused.

"Are you going to _do_ anything about it?" inquired Lily.

"What? No! I can't!"

"Why not?"

"Because he's one of the hottest guys in school and, like, _every_ girl likes him! He could take his pick from any one of the girls! Plus, if he didn't feel the same way it would ruin our friendship!" Kim exclaimed.

Lily sighed. She was bursting to say that Kim's fears were irrational, as Sirius did like her back. But she had already promised herself that she wouldn't say anything. Sure, she was trying her hardest to get them together, but she didn't want Kim or Sirius to know that.

"Well, it's your choice." said Lily, choosing her words carefully. "But you could regret it."

Kim mumbled something incomprehensible and then fell silent. Lily decided to change the subject. "Have you been listening to the WWN lately?"

"Yeah," said Kim sadly. "But look, Lils – I'm going to bed, OK?"

"OK, sure." said Lily. Kim looked like the last thing she needed was an argument.

As her best friend left, Lily felt kind of bad. She knew it wasn't her fault, but it seemed kind of unfair that she was going to have such a wonderful Valentines Day, whereas Kim would be having such a dull one.

It was guilt to add on to her pity for Remus, and her huge feeling of concern for James, Sirius and Peter. It might not have been a big thing to them, but they were running around with a _werewolf!_

_Lily, stop it! _She told herself sternly. _Kim will feel better after a good night's sleep. Nothing is going to happen to James, Sirius or Peter. It's not your fault that Remus is a werewolf. And it's Valentines Day on Sunday! So you should be feeling happy!_

After thinking all this she realised it was the truth. And she _did _feel happy, as she fell asleep in front of the fire. And her dreams consisted of her and James on a happy date in Hogsmeade. Although her dreams weren't nearly as magical as what was truly going to happen in two days time…

**A/N:** Omg, omg, omg! It's Valentines Day next! I'm so freaking excited! This is going to be so much fun! And extra lame and mushy chapter awaits you next update! Hehehe, I'm on a high of happiness! Now review, my friends! Review!


	12. Valentines Day

**A/N:** Raise your hand if you're excited! (raises hand). First of all, congratulations to DDwelling for picking up some hints! You were so close! OK, I'm not going to delay this any further, I'll just thank PremzaWitchOfWeirdos, elisabeth, DDwelling, webling-girl05, Tahirisolo90, zippyfox and IceFire9.

**Disclaimer:** If I was J.K.R., I'd be writing book seven! But instead I'm writing fanfiction. Eh, it's all good.

Lily woke up on the morning of February the fourteenth with a feeling of elation. Although at first, she couldn't quite remember why. And then it all came back to her. _Because today's also Valentines Day! James and I are going out tonight!_ And her euphoric feeling only increased as she smiled.

"So you're awake, huh?" whispered Kim from the bed beside her.

"Yeah," croaked Lily. "I thought _you'd_ be asleep, of all people!"

Kim shrugged. "I woke up early. So… Valentines Day today, hey?"

"Yep - I don't think I'll be able to last until this evening!" said Lily excitedly. She and James were finally going on a date! An actual date!

"What are you going to wear?" asked Kim. Lily's smile faded slightly. What, with the Quidditch match disaster, the masses of homework they were being given and Full Moon a few nights ago; she had forgotten about her outfit!

"Kim, I completely forgot about clothes!" she panicked.

"Calm down!" said Kim. "Look, we'll sort through your clothes today and pick something out then, OK?"

"OK." said Lily, able to breathe again.

"And anyway; I'm sure James, lovesick as he is, wouldn't care in the slightest if you turned up with nothing on but a bed sheet!" exclaimed Kim. "As a matter of fact, he might prefer it."

"Oh, shut up." grinned Lily. She attempted to throw her pillow at Kim, but she ducked and it sailed over her and onto Alice's bed.

"Hey!" cried Alice sleepily.

"Oops." said Lily, as she and Kim burst into peals of laughter, waking up Tara and Emmeline, too.

"Guys, it's a Sunday!" yawned Tara. "Why so early?"

"Because it's Valentines Day!" explained Kim happily.

"Oh God - it is, isn't it?" asked Emmeline. She immediately sprung out of bed and began looking through her trunk. "What to wear?"

"Yeah, Lily's having the same problem." laughed Kim.

"Date with James?" asked Alice. Lily nodded.

"Have fun!" giggled Tara.

"Thanks."

Lily and Kim got changed and went down to breakfast by eight o'clock. Most of the school was already there (most unusual on a Sunday morning) and a there were lots of twosomes sitting together. Lily had never realised just how many couples Hogwarts held.

"Morning!" exclaimed James brightly as they sat down. "Why Lily, you're looking exceedingly beautiful today!"

"Save it, you." smiled Lily.

"Hey, guys." said Sirius, looking up but not making eye contact with either of them. He looked somewhat pale and shaky, as though… no, there had to be some other explanation. Sirius? _Nervous?_

"Hi." replied Kim. "Oooh, hash browns!"

As Lily began to pile her plate with sausages, the post arrived. James' tawny owl landed in front of her with a thump. Surprised, Lily unfolded the parchment in his beak.

_Dearest Lily,_(it read)

_I'll meet you in the common room at half-past four. Yeah, yeah, I know I could have just told you this, but I thought a note seemed more 'romantic', as you would probably put it. Save your criticism. _

_Can't wait until this evening, _

_James._

Lily giggled and glanced at James, who grinned. There was another thump as a school barn owl swooped in front of Kim.

"Were you expecting any post?" asked Lily.

"Nope." said Kim, opening the letter. "I suppose it's just from my parents, or…" but Kim trailed off as she began to read. Her eyes widened and her jaw dropped.

"What's wrong?" asked Lily, worried. Kim, apparently incapable of speech, showed Lily the parchment.

_Roses are red, _

_Violets are blue, _

_I know this poem is lame, _

_But I wrote it for you!_

_Happy Valentines Day. Man, I wish I were spending mine with you. But I suppose you've already got a Valentine, huh? Oh well, I won't give up hope that one day that cheeky-but-charming smile of yours will be mine. _

Lily smirked as Kim gaped. "A love note? For _me_? But… who?" she asked. "No idea." said Lily, though she was not being entirely truthful. Two seats along, she saw Sirius concentrating hard on his plate, having turned slightly pink.

----------

"Green top or blue top?" asked Lily, holding up the two shirts in question.

"Green." said Kim, after a pause. "It'll bring out your eyes."

Lily slipped into the green, v-neck top and put on some skinny jeans. She studied herself in the mirror, and she didn't look half bad.

"How about your hair?" asked Kim.

"I'll leave it loose." answered Lily, combing her fingers through it. Deciding it was too knotty, she grabbed a brush and began to attack it.

"Effing… hair… can't… brush…" she muttered, trying, and failing, to pull the hairbrush through her red locks.

"What's the time?" asked Kim. Lily stopped attempting to brush her hair to check her watch.

"It's only twenty to five." She replied.

"Weren't you supposed to meet James at half-past four?" asked Kim. Lily swore at the top of her voice.

"I'd better go then, see you later, Kim!" she called, giving the brush a final tug and streaking from the dormitory.

"Bye! Have fun!" yelled Kim's voice from behind her.

Lily emerged into the Common Room, panting. She saw James straight away. He was wearing some smart-casual clothes, and showed no sign of attempting to overcome his untidy mop of hair. Infact, Lily strongly suspected he had messed it up even more.

"I thought you were never going to show up!" he grinned.

"Lost track of time…" mumbled Lily.

"It doesn't matter." shrugged James. "Shall we?"

Her heart racing a mile a minute, Lily nodded. James pushed open the Fat Lady's portrait for her, and together they left Gryffindor Tower.

"I, er, like your shirt." said James awkwardly.

"Oh, thanks." said Lily, as they left the school grounds. There was a pause.

"Where do you want to go?" asked James.

"Anywhere." said Lily, shivering. It was quite chilly outside, and she was beginning to wish she had brought something warmer. She clasped James' hand. Good God, his palms were warm. Hand in hand they walked around in random directions, wherever their feet carried them.

The village was filled with plenty of other Hogwarts couples, but the head boy and girl felt entirely alone. For a time, they were silent, merely enjoying one another's company. The wind whipped their hair and faces, but Lily didn't care.

Eventually, they wound up in front of the Shrieking Shack. There they stopped to have a look around, and shelter from the cold breeze a bit.

"I used to wonder what on earth it was that made the noises from here at night." confessed Lily. "I was terrified of whatever was in there."

"Mmm, Me, Sirius and Peter worked it out about Remus in third year. We became animagi during fifth." said James.

"Lord, an animagus at sixteen…" said Lily, impressed.

"Fifteen, actually." said James, looking at his fingernails with mock arrogance. Lily laughed.

"Remus is lucky to have friend like you." She said, smiling warmly at the Marauder as she once again intertwined her hands within his.

"Bloody hell." whispered James, more to himself than Lily.

"What?" she asked.

"Nothing." he shrugged.

"_What?_" repeated Lily.

"It's nothing, really," he started. "But when you smile like that, I just want to…" but James trailed off, as though he could not find the right words.

"Kiss me?" asked Lily, grinning cheekily up at him.

"Don't mind if I do." said James. And he did. Passionately.

Lily felt as if she were going to faint from happiness. It was Valentines Day; she was on a date in Hogsmeade with the love of her life, and they were snogging as though it were their last night alive. Pure bliss.

Many minutes later, when the couple broke apart, Lily shivered again.

"Cold?" asked James. Lily nodded. James wrapped his arms around her shoulders. "Is that better?"

"No, not really." admitted Lily. "Thankyou, but I'm still bloody freezing."

"Oh," grinned James. "Well perhaps we should go to the Three Broomsticks, then."

"Sounds like a plan." agreed Lily. So the pair of them turned and walked back the way that they came.

The bar was pleasantly warm, although very crowded. James somehow managed to find them a table, right by the window. He left Lily for a minute as he went and ordered them both butterbeers. As she sat down, Lily sighed happily. _Goodness, I'm too lovesick for my own good! _She thought, smiling.

"What're you smiling at?" asked James, placing a mug of foaming butterbeer in front of her.

"Everything." replied Lily. James looked a little confused, but when Lily said no more he sipped his drink in silence.

It was funny that, though they both had plenty to say, neither was spoke. Lily suspected that James felt like she did, happier than she'd ever felt in her life. She had been waiting for this for weeks… months… possibly even years… and now it was really happening she felt as if it were a dream come true. It was a million times better than anything she could have possibly imagined.

Sure – it _was_ just a date, but it was a date with the love of her life. It was a date with James. If it was bliss when they kissed, spending this much time alone with him was like walking on air. Nothing could stop her overflowing feeling of joy.

"There're so many people in here!" exclaimed James, breaking the silence.

"I know, I thought everyone would be in Madam Puddifoots." agreed Lily. James shuddered.

"That teashop is_ the_ worst thing that can happen to a guy." He muttered. Lily giggled.

"D'you want to leave and go to Madam Puddifoots, James?" she joked.

"No, but I'll leave here anyway." said James. "I feel claustrophobic."

"Sure." said Lily. She had enjoyed being warmed up by the butterbeer, but privacy with James again was an offer too wondrous to deny. Together they left the Three Broomsticks. Lily's ears rung with the sudden change from echoing chatter to quiet.

"Wow, I can breathe again." said James.

"Wow, I'm frozen again." laughed Lily.

"I _would_ give you my jacket," said James. "But it'd make me cold."

"And be really lame." added Lily.

"Oh well, I'll just have to think of a more original way to keep you warm." said James. His arm snuck around her waist as he pulled her closer to him.

"I can think of one." said Lily, giving him a gentle kiss on the lips.

"That'll work." said James, and kissed her back.

"It's getting dark already." said Lily sadly. The light was dimming, and Lily knew that they wouldn't be able to stay out for more than an hour later without being in terrible trouble.

"I suppose you want to go back soon, then." sighed James.

"No way!" exclaimed Lily, her love of James taking over her common sense. "Who cares about the rules?"

James' jaw dropped. "I never thought I'd hear _you _say that!"

"You've had a bad influence on me." shrugged Lily, smiling.

"I suppose I have." admitted James. "But hey, it's not like that's a bad thing."

"Are you kidding? It's _terrible_!" jested Lily. James laughed. There was an awkward pause. James turned his head towards the setting sun.

"You know," he said. "It's kind of weird that I've dreamt about a day like this since I met you; but now it's actually happening it doesn't even feel real."

"I feel the same." said Lily. "It's all too good to be true. And you've made today so magical, James."

"I know how we can make it even_ more_ magical, if you know what I mean." said James, who had raised his eyebrows suggestively.

"You wish!" Lily giggled.

"I tried." James shrugged. Lily just smiled happily and tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. She noticed James watching her intently.

"Thankyou, James."

"You're welcome." said James, grinning. Then he paused and raised an eyebrow. "For what?"

"For… everything."

The sun disappeared behind the horizon line so that all that was left of its light was a faint, orange tinge. A draught of chilly wind passed by the head boy and girl, and Lily pulled James closer to her for warmth. He draped an arm around her shoulders.

For a moment they just stood there, wrapped in each others arms, watching the crescent moon slowly rise. Then they turned to look at one another. Lily gazed up into his eyes and saw nothing but warm love shining in their hazel depths. James stared down at her and murmured softly;

"Happy Valentines Day."

**A/N:** Yay! That was fun! But now I've actually written it I'm kind of scared it won't have lived up to your expectations. Maybe that was why I had writers block FIVE TIMES. So was it OK? Please let me know!


	13. A Word, 7 Detentions and Stubby Boardman

**A/N:** Phew! I'm SO glad that everyone didn't hate the last chapter! I thought it was a bit too jumpy, so thanks to Bellatrix14, Mandy, Harlee, webling-girl05, Elisabeth, IceFire9, russianchikk, DDwelling, zippyfox and EboniteEvans for the reassurance! Hokay, this starts Monday, the day after the date and Kim's "anonymous" love note.

**Disclaimer:** If I was J.K. Rowling I'd be bribing my friends with hints on the seventh book right now. Hehe.

"Oh, c'mon," insisted Kim. "I need more than that. Give me a blow-by-blow account of what happened last night."

"Kim, we'd be standing here the rest of our lives if I did that." replied Lily. "Plus, I'm starved. Can we go to breakfast already?"

"Fine." laughed Kim, and they left their dormitory for the Great Hall. "But you owe me. Tonight you have to tell me exactly what happened."

Lily rolled her eyes. "So did you do anything interesting after I left?" she asked, wondering vaguely if Kim had worked out who had sent the love note yet.

"Nope. I just thought a bit about this 'secret admirer' person."

"Oh?" said Lily.

"Yeah. Well, it's obviously not a Slytherin, because they'd never send anything like that to a Gryffindor. And I recon it's either a sixth or seventh year that sent it by the writing style. So that leaves all the single sixth and seventh year guys in Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, because I highly doubt it was a Gryffindor-"

"Why don't you think it's a Gryffindor?"

"Because all the sixth years in Gryffindor are jerks, James is dating you, Peter likes that Hufflepuff girl, Remus isn't the kind of guy who sends anonymous love notes and Sirius… just wouldn't do that."

"You had a lot of time to think about this last night, didn't you?" asked Lily.

"Yep." said Kim, as they walked into the Great Hall.

"G'morning." said James.

Sirius, who hadn't shown any sign of recognition that the two girls were now there, yawned. He looked very tired.

"What's up with him?" Lily asked Remus, jerking her thumb at Sirius.

"He couldn't get to sleep." replied Remus. Maybe Lily imagined it, but she thought she saw Peter's eyes flick momentarily to Kim. Sirius, meanwhile, was thumping his head on the table-top repetitively.

"Stupidest." _Thud._ "Thing." _Thud._ "I've." _Thud._ "Ever."_ Thud. _"Done." _Thud._

"What's the stupidest thing you've ever done?" asked Kim, sitting down next to Sirius. Sirius looked up, and his eyes grew apprehensive.

"Nothing." He said.

"Er… did you hear about Stubby Boardman?" asked Lily hastily.

----------

Transfiguration was first for everyone but Peter. As they walked into the classroom, McGonagall turned on James and Sirius.

"You two will be serving your first detention on Thursday." she said.

"What're we doing?" asked James.

"You will be doing the Trophy Room, Potter."

"What about me?" said Sirius.

"You're to sort Professor Slughorn's potions for him." McGonagall told him. "Seven-thirty sharp, both of you."

"Looking forward to it." grinned James. They sat down.

"Ugh, I hate doing Slughorn's potions." said Sirius. "You're lucky, the Trophy Room's an easy one."

"I dunno, if it hasn't been done in a while it'll be a lot harder." commented James. "But at least it's better than the Hospital Wing bedpans."

"I suppose."

Lily blinked. "Are you telling me that you've done so many detentions that you actually have _preferences_?"

"Yeah." said Sirius and James in unison.

"But we haven't had too many detentions this year." added James.

"How many have you had?" asked Kim.

"Seven, including this one."

"Not _many_? It's only second term!" exclaimed Lily.

"That's hardly any at all for these two." said Remus, jabbing his thumb in James and Sirius' direction.

"True." said Lily.

----------

"…and so we see that technique is the most important part of defensive magical theory." droned Professor Assero, the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. Professor Assero was in her late twenties, and her lessons were always either very interesting or exceedingly boring. Today it was the latter.

Normally Lily would have been taking notes, but it was only revision. She therefore permitted herself to relax, and for her mind to wander away from Defence Against the Dark Arts and onto thoughts about a certain head-boy.

She jumped as the bell rung. There was a scrabble or chairs scraping against the floor and talking broke out among the students. Lily began to stuff her books back into her bag.

"No homework for this week!" called Assero cheerfully. "But remember to keep studying, NEWTs aren't far away!"

"She just _had_ to remind us about NEWTs, didn't she?" asked Kim as they left the classroom.

"Well, yeah." said Lily.

"What's for lunch? I'm starving!" said James.

"You're _always_ starving." Remus pointed out.

"So?" asked James. They sat down and helped themselves to food.

Two helpings and several lame jokes from James later, it was time for their next class. In Lily, James, Sirius and Remus' case, this was Arithmancy. In Kim and Peter's case, it was free period.

They were just getting up to leave when Kim's bag split. _The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 7_ fell out of the small hole, along with a bottle of ink which smashed as it hit the floor.

"Argh, bloody bag." muttered Kim. She bent down and attempted to wipe some of the ink away with her sleeve. Lily bent down to help her.

"Want any help?" asked Remus.

"Nah, you guys go to class." said Kim.

"Meet you there." agreed Lily. She pulled out her wand and began to help Kim whisk away the ink.

"Thanks." said Kim. She rubbed a small patch of wet ink off of the cover of her book.

"It's fine." said Lily. "But I'd better get to cl-" but she stopped speaking as she straightened up and found that Sirius was still standing next to them. Suddenly she realised that he probably wanted to talk to Kim.

"See you later." she muttered, her cheeks flushing slightly. She'd walked halfway out of the Hall when Sirius caught up with her.

"Um, Lily?" he asked.

"Yeah?" said Lily, confused.

"Er, can I have a word?"

"Sure, I guess." said Lily, feeling somewhat apprehensive. What would Sirius want to talk to _her_ about?

The pair of them turned a corner as they continued to walk to class. Sirius took a deep breath.

"OK, you know that Valentines Day note that Kim got?" he asked tentatively, turning red.

"Yeah,"

"Well, um..."

"You sent it." Lily finished for him. Sirius blinked.

"How'd you know?"

"I worked it out."

"Does Kim know?"

"No." she replied simply. Sirius breathed a sigh of relief.

"Anyway, I was kind of wondering, well, how I could… you know, tell her."

Lily bit her lip to stop herself from laughing. _Typical boy. He does something on impulse and then has no idea what to do next!_ It took all of Lily's self control not to smile.

"Lily?" asked Sirius. He waved his hand in front of her face.

"Right, sorry." said Lily, letting a small grin escape. "You want to know how to tell her that you sent it?"

"Uh-huh." Sirius nodded.

"Alright, um… Just pull her aside at some point and tell her in private that it was you."

"OK." said Sirius uncertainly.

"Oh, and after you tell her, you might want to ask her out." added Lily.

"Right." Sirius paused. "How soon should I tell her?"

"Erm, sometime this week, probably."

"Sure." said Sirius. He turned red again. "Thanks, Lily."

"No problem."

"We'd better run, before the bell goes." commented Sirius. A moment later, the bell rung.

"Spoke too soon." said Lily. And they both began to run in the hope that their teacher may not notice them come in a minute late.

**A/N:** Hehe, I really liked making Sirius need help. Although it was quite difficult, it was still fun! Sucker. And remember; Reviews equal happiness. Happiness equals me going on a high. Me going on a high equals inspiration. And inspiration equals a faster update! So review!


	14. Homework Mode

**A/N:** How y'all doin' y'all? OK, I _know_ this chapter isn't the longest, but I had REALLY bad writers block. So sorry! And yeah,I realise it hasa random name. Oh, thanks to PremzaWitchOfWeirdos, russianchikk, DDwelling, Jenna, rupertisahottie05, Tahirisolo90, EboniteEvans, scowlingpixie, zippy fox and webling-girl05 for reviews. You guys rock.

**Disclaimer: **I bow down to J. K. Rowling as a goddess. She owns all.

Lily sighed. It was Wednesday, and she had stacks of homework, which she was supposed to be doing. Although she was finding it too hard to concentrate, as memories of four nights previously kept finding their way into her head. Stupid hormones.

She _knew_ that she had to study. NEWTs were looming closer, and she was hardly ready to take them. Lily was still unsure on what she wanted to do for a career. This sucked, as it meant she would need to try and get top marks on everything to keep her options open.

Lily didn't have a direct plan for the future. She wanted to choose a career that she would enjoy, and that would pay well, and that wouldn't mean she had to work for long hours. She also needed to figure out where she was going to live after Hogwarts finished. She wasn't going to live with her parents, given that her horrible sister was still staying there. But she didn't know how she'd find the money to go anywhere else.

She hoped her future included James. Maybe she could go to live with him? No, that was stupid. They weren't married! Hopefully one day they would live together, but not yet. Perhaps she could rent with Kim. Then they could split the cost, and there'd be fewer fees for her to pay.

_OK, Lily. You have to get this done. Thinking of this stuff will just mean you'll have to do it later. _She told herself. She rid her head of everything but Defence Against the Dark Arts and turned back to her essay.

_As inferi are lifeless, spells will often not work against them. _She wrote. _This gives an advantage to the individual using them, as the victim is left with less self-defence tactics that will prevail against them. Another advantage of using inferi is that they cannot feel pain, meaning that-_

"Hey." said James, seating himself in the armchair next to her. Lily made an impatient noise.

"_What?_" she asked, a little more viciously than was probably necessary.

"Er, what did I do?" he asked, looking scared.

Lily issued a half-laugh, half-sigh. "Nothing. Sorry."

"Because if I'm bugging you..."

Lily rolled her eyes. She knew where this was headed. "Oh, James. You know I'm always happy to see you. But I'm busy right now." she said as if in a soap-opera. There was a pause.

"Happy now?" she asked him.

"Yeah." James grinned. "Doing homework?"

"Yep. Defence Against the Dark Arts essay."

"The one we got yesterday?"

"Uh-huh."

"Haven't started it."

"_Big_ surprise." Lily muttered. It was really beginning to annoy her how James and Sirius never studied, yet always got good marks.

"Well, I suppose I'd better leave you to it." James gave her cheek a quick kiss, got up and walked off. Lily sighed again. She would have to go back into homework-mode.

_-meaning that weapons can't be used against them. Ability to defeat an inferius depends on the witch or wizard that has enchanted it. For example, if the spell work was-_

"Hey, Lily?" asked Remus.

"Merlin, can't a person do their homework in peace in this place?" she grumbled.

"Sorry," Remus apologised. "But do you have the time?"

"Oh, yeah. Twenty minutes to twelve. Why?"

"Erm, I was wondering when Padfoot was going to get back from Astronomy." He replied, sounding truthful. Lily raised her eyebrows questioningly.

"He's, um, borrowed a… book from me, and I need to check something in it." He added, less convincingly.

"You really need to work on your lying, Remus." laughed Lily. "_Sirius?_ Borrowing a _book?_"

"First thing that came into my head." Remus shrugged sheepishly and went to join James without telling her anymore.

_-if the spell work was done poorly, the inferius would be easier to defeat. It would also prove more difficult for the victim if more that one inferius were used against them. The dark wizard Grindelwald was known to use hundreds of inferi at one time._

She'd learnt of inferi years ago, yet it still creeped Lily out slightly that someone would enchant dead bodies. She didn't know how anyone could possibly be as heartless as to use the dead to do their bidding.

Lily looked at what she'd written. Almost a whole roll of parchment! Surely that was enough for one night? Perhaps she'd write the rest tomorrow.

She yawned. What else was there to do? Maybe she could play chess with Remus? No, she wasn't in the mood. Read her book? She'd finished it the night before.

Eventually, Lily decided to write a letter to her parents. She hadn't done so in a while now.

_Dear Mum and Dad,_

_How are you? Hope you're well. I'm great – still giddy from the date James and I…_

Suddenly she realised her family didn't know about her and James yet! What kind of a daughter was she? She tore off the top of the parchment and started the letter again.

_Dear Mum and Dad,_

_How are you? Hope you're well. I'm fantastic, over Christmas break I started going out with James Potter, whose head boy. Dad – there's nothing to worry about, he's very responsible._

Well, there was nothing wrong with a _little_ white lie to keep her parents from worrying.

_I have NEWTs coming up next term. They're kind of like the massive seventh year exams that decide which magical career we're allowed to have. We've got more homework than usual because of them._

Understatement of the century!

_Could you please send a bit more money? Kim's birthday is coming up and I want to get her a really nice present from Hogsmeade._

OK, so what if Kim's birthday was on October the 1st? She needed some more money!

_Well, I should probably get back to doing my homework or something. Give Petunia my regards. I hope the owl didn't bug her too much._

_Miss you,_

_Lily._

Lily folded up the letter and put it with her books. She'd go up to the owlery tomorrow morning.

She yawned again and checked her watch. Twelve-fifteen! Kim had to be back soon!

Right on cue, Kim and Sirius walked through the portrait hole together. Kim said something to Sirius, who grinned and nodded. Then, with a smile as wide as Slughorn's stomach, she ran over to Lily.

"Lily! Guess what, Lils?" she half-yelled. In her enthusiasm she knocked over Lily's ink bottle. "Oh, sorry."

"It's fine." said Lily, pulling out her wand and whisking away the ink. "So what were you saying?"

Kim's face split into, if possible, a broader grin. She looked happier than Lily could ever remember seeing her. "It was him! _He_ sent the Valentines note! He likes me! Lily, Sirius asked me out!"

**A/N:** Can you hear me screaming "FINALLY!"? Coz I'm pretty sure it was loud enough. lol. Review and I _will_ update fast this time, because I already know half the stuff that's gunna happen next chapter! And remember – ideas are always welcome! And they might help me get through writers block!


	15. The So Called Prank

**A/N:** I know I told you guys I'd update faster this time, but I was forced to go on a "fun" holiday, which basically consisted of four days of torture. And I kind of needed to rewrite this chapter, coz the first time I wrote it, it was too short and uneventful. Anywho, thanks to zippyfox, EboniteEvans, riduculouslyriddikulus, frenchfriesrule, webling-girl05 and PremzaWitchOfWeirdos for making me wanna write more! Rightio, this is exactly where we left off last chapter, except it's James' POV.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Harry Potter. Unfortunately.

"…and then the nun pulls off _her_ mask and says; 'Ha ha! I'm the bus driver!'" finished James.

"James, that's the grossest joke I've ever heard." said Remus with disgust, as Peter giggled.

"It _is_ funny, though." argued James.

"No it isn't. It's just sick and wrong."

"Padfoot's back." said Peter. Remus and James stopped debating the amount of distaste for James' joke as Sirius walked over and sat down next to them.

"How'd it go?" asked James, although he could already predict the answer by Sirius' grin.

"Great." said Sirius cheerfully. The other three Marauders wolf-whistled. James high-fived with his best mate.

"What did you say?" asked Remus.

Sirius shrugged. "What Lily told me to say."

"And what was that?" asked Peter.

"That I sent the Valentines Day note."

James blinked. "You actually had to get Lily to tell you that _you sent it_?"

"No, I needed Lily to tell me when and where to tell her."

"Well, what did Kim say?" asked Remus.

"Er…" Sirius put on a voice of higher pitch. "'That was _you?_'"

"I _told_ you the V. Day note was a good idea!" commented James.

"And then what?" Peter wanted to know.

"I asked her out."

"And she said…?"

"She said yes and then, er, we came back here."

"That's it?" asked Remus with a sly grin. Sirius said nothing, but turned a steady red.

"No… oh, I don't know… kissing?" James played dumb.

"Um, no…" mumbled Sirius. He was about the same colour as the scarlet armchair he was sitting on, now.

"Oh, he _so_ kissed her." said Remus to James.

"Awesome work, mate." said James. "Now we only have to hook up Peter and that Hufflepuff and find Remus a girl and we'll all be set."

"Yeah, but how?" asked Sirius, looking thankful that the subject had changed.

"OK, I'm thinking we get six cans of whipped cream, a bucket of water…"

"Ahem." coughed Remus.

"You guys _do_ know we're sitting right here?" asked Peter.

"Yeah." said James with a shrug as Lily and Kim walked over to them.

"Night," said Lily to all of the Marauders. James kissed Lily on the lips.

As they broke apart, James saw Kim smiling bashfully at Sirius. Sirius was smiling back. James began to snigger, and received a painful elbow in the ribs from Lily.

"Ow!" he whispered.

"G'night." said Kim.

"Yeah." said Sirius. His voice had a somewhat dreamy quality to it. _That_ was something James had never heard before! The girls walked up their staircase and out of sight. Sirius was still staring absently into space.

"Er, Sirius?" asked Peter, waving his hand in front of Sirius' face. Sirius jumped back to life.

"Er, right." said Sirius.

"I recon the girls are right." said Remus. "I'll go to bed, too."

"What, already?" asked Sirius incredulously.

"It's twenty-past twelve." said Remus.

"Exactly! Who goes to sleep this early?"

"Apparently, everyone but us." said James, gesturing around the empty Common Room.

"Yeah, but I'm feeling kind of… excited." said Sirius.

"Gross," said Peter. "Just because you were snogging Kim ten minutes ago-"

"Not like that! And I _haven't_ been snogging her!" Sirius exclaimed. "I mean, I'm not tired. Why don't we play a prank?"

James, Remus and Peter blinked up at him. "Because it's the middle of the night?" suggested Remus.

"Oh, C'mon." begged Sirius. He turned on James. "Prongs?"

_Actually,_ James thought, _We haven't played a good prank in a long time. Maybe we should…_

"OK." James agreed. Remus rolled his eyes.

"I _really_ don't understand why Dumbledore made you Head Boy." He commented.

"Wormtail? You coming?" asked Sirius. Peter shrugged.

"I guess." He replied. James, Sirius and Peter all turned on Remus.

"_Please,_ Moony?" they all said in unison. Remus sighed.

"We'll get caught, you mark my words." he said resentfully. Sirius cheered.

----------

James crept along the dark, deserted corridor, with his lit-up wand in one hand and a bag of frogspawn in the other.

"Sirius, tell me again why we're all carrying frogspawn?" asked Remus.

"Ouch! Wait, where are we?" Sirius consulted the newly-perfected Marauders Map. "Sorry, Moony?" Remus repeated the question. "Oh, because we're going to put it in Sean Piers's bed."

"Yeah… why?"

"Because he caused me seven months of torment last year."

"I'm still not following you."

"When he went out with Kim!"

"Oh… right. Of course."

"Er… one problem." said James. He saw Sirius' outline turn to him.

"What?"

"Won't Sean be _in_ his bed?"

"Oh… yeah." said Sirius. Remus sighed from somewhere on James' left. "Now what?"

"_We_ go to bed?" said Peter with a yawn.

"No way!" said Sirius. "It's only, like, one o'clock!"

"You only don't want to go to sleep 'cause you won't be able to." Remus pointed out.

"Why wouldn't I be able to get to sleep?" asked Sirius. His voice sounded shifty.

"Because you wouldn't be able to stop reliving you and Kim snogging!" taunted Remus.

"For the last bloody time, we DIDN'T SNOG!" exclaimed Sirius.

"For the last bloody time, we DON'T BELIEVE YOU!" James yelled, imitating Sirius' tone.

"Why not?"

"Because you turn bright red every time we've mentioned her since you got back from Astronomy!"

"As interesting as I'm sure Mr Black's love life is, I must question as to why you boys aren't in bed, and instead carrying bags of frogspawn around the castle." said a voice. Sirius swore obscenely as the boys turned around to see Professor McGonagall.

"Black!" she screeched, obviously disgusted at Sirius' language.

"Sorry Professor." muttered Sirius. James' eyes were now wont enough to the darkness to see McGonagall glare down at them for a few seconds, waiting for an explanation.

"Er…" said Peter.

"Well, you see, Professor" said Remus. "Sirius here was… erm… sleepwalking. And we wanted to wake him up. So we decided to pour some water over his head. But all we could find was frogspawn. And by the time we'd got some, he'd already left the dormitory! So we followed him, incase he hurt himself."

McGonagall blinked down at Remus, and then turned her disbelieving gaze to Sirius, who was wide awake.

"Er, it was lucky your, um, loud voice woke me up!" Sirius added sheepishly.

"However loudly I was talking, it was nothing compared to the way you four were shouting." said McGonagall "I'm surprised you didn't wake the whole castle up! Do you enjoy spending time in detention? Fifty points from Gryffindor, and a detention for all of you." She turned to James and Remus. "As for you, Mr Potter, Mr Lupin, I'm very disappointed in you. As prefect and Head Boy you should be setting examples for the younger students. As your Head of House, I expect you to be responsible role-models."

"Sorry, Professor." the Marauders chorused.

"Now go to bed, before I decide to take even more house points from Gryffindor." said McGonagall. James, Sirius, Remus and Peter ran at top speed until they reached the Portrait Hole.

"Where _have_ you been?" asked the Fat Lady.

"Out." said James. "Dingbat."

She swung forwards and allowed them into the Common Room. There they collapsed, puffing, into armchairs by the fire. They took one look at each other's faces, and then all burst out laughing.

"Phew!" said Peter.

"I'm just surprised she didn't try to weasel the _real_ reason we had frogspawn out of us!" said James.

"Yeah, that wasn't one of your best excuses, Moony." Sirius agreed.

"At least I _tried_ to give her an explanation! Unlike you three!"

"Both you and I know that if James, Peter or I tried to explain, the result would come out about ten times less believable that your excuse." said Sirius.

"Fair point." said Remus.

"Um, why didn't we go under the invisibility cloak?" asked Peter.

"Because it won't cover all four of us anymore. Plus, Padfoot here wanted to go as soon as possible, so I wouldn't have time to get it, anyway." James replied.

"Well, at least we didn't get into _too_ much trouble." said Sirius.

"_Didn't get into too much trouble?_" repeated Remus. "We got a detention each, and fifty points taken from Gryffindor! And you two already _have_ double detention from the whole Aubrey thing!"

"Yeah, like I said, not too much trouble." said Sirius carelessly.

"Do you even _care _about the NEWTs?" asked Remus exasperatedly.

"Not particularly." replied James.

"But what happens when you and Lily get married?" asked Remus "What'll you do for work?"

"Who says we're going to get married?" asked James with his eyebrows raised.

"Oh _come on,_ you've been crushing on her since first year." said Sirius. "And have you seen her face lately when she looks at you? Trust me, you two_ not_ getting married some day is about as likely as Moony not turning into a howling, bloodthirsty beast once a month." Remus glared at him. "Plus, I know you're gunna _want_ to ask you to marry her for one reason."

"Oh yeah? And why's that?" James asked.

"One word; Honeymoon!" exclaimed Sirius. Remus and Peter chuckled.

"Shut _up_." James told them, feeling his face grow hot.

"What? It's true!"

"Yeah," said Peter in agreement.

"Look, I don't know about you guys, but I'm going to bed before you somehow convince me to play another prank." said Remus.

"Yeah, I'll go too." said James. Peter nodded.

Sirius sighed. "I guess I'll come up too, then." The four boys climbed the stairs up to their dormitory. They bade each other goodnight, and clambered into bed.

Although it was almost half-past one at night, James found it difficult to get to sleep. He couldn't stop thinking about what the others had said. _Trust me, you two not getting married some day is about as likely as Moony not turning into a howling, bloodthirsty beast once a month…_

_Oh, well,_ he thought. _I suppose we'll get married in the end. If I don't do something stupid. I suppose we'll have to wait and see._

And with the happy thought of a possible Mrs Lily Potter in his head, he was finally able to drown out Peter's snores and fall asleep.

**A/N:** Wow, that came out waaaay longer than I'd thought it was going to! But, then again, I didn't really plan for the attempted-prank to happen. It just kind of… did. Anyway… review! Pleeeaaaaase?


	16. Talking Kettles and Mini Food Fights

**A/N:** Thanks to EboniteEvans, webling-girl05, Saber12, DDwelling, Tahirisolo90, rupertisahottie05, zippy fox and PremzaWitchOfWeirdos! OK, I decided to do James' POV again for this chapter, coz I wanted to put his detention in there. So… yeah.

**Disclaimer:** Trust me, if I were J.K.R. I'd own, like, at _least_ two hundred pairs of shoes.

The next day, the whole school was talking about Sirius and Kim. Apparently, quite a few people had bets on when they would start going out. Other people were just disappointed that they were no longer single, both Sirius and Kim were quite popular.

James was just glad to see his best mate this happy. It was something he hadn't seen in a while, what with Sirius running away from home and all. James thought nothing could spoil his good mood… that is to say, up until the girls found out about their adventures the night before at lunch time.

"I can't believe you have _another_ detention!" exclaimed Lily.

"Yeah, just because we were all carrying frogspawn…" muttered Sirius.

"But why were you carrying bags of frogspawn around the castle in the first place?" asked Lily.

"Sirius was sleepwalking." James replied simply.

"And you needed frogspawn _why?_" Kim asked.

"Because we couldn't find any water to throw over his head, so we had to use frogspawn instead." said Remus. Lily looked at them disbelievingly.

"You've had since about one last night until now," Lily indicated her plate of lunch, "to think of an excuse. That's really the best one you could come up with?"

Sirius looked down shamefully. "Yeah."

"So what's the real reason, then?" asked Kim eagerly.

"Kim, you may be Sirius' girlfriend now," said Remus. "And Lily may be James', but do you really think we'd stoop so low as to tell you that?"

Lily answered Remus' question with a glare at James so menacing that he felt like cowering at hiding behind his chair. James gulped. If he told them he'd be a disgrace to Marauderkind. But if he didn't, well… Lily could be very, very scary.

"We were planning on putting it in someone's bed." He replied cautiously.

"Whose?" asked Lily.

"… Sean Piers'." said James, dreading the reaction. To his enormous surprise, both Lily and Kim burst into laughter.

"What the hell?" Sirius mouthed at him.

"You – really?" Kim asked, her eyes swimming with tears of laughter.

"Too bad you were caught." Lily agreed.

"Um," said Peter. "What?"

"Sean Piers is the biggest jerk in the school." explained Lily.

"Even worse than you two." added Kim, jabbing her thumb at James and Sirius.

"So why are you both currently dating us, then?" asked Sirius. Kim blushed.

"But… wait. Didn't _you_ go out with Sean once?" Peter asked Kim.

"Yeah, and there's a reason we're not going out anymore." answered Kim darkly.

"What-?" Sirius began to ask, but there was a thud and Sirius said "Ouch! Moony, what was that for?" James guessed that Remus had kicked him in the shins.

The bell rung. "Coming, guys?" asked Lily.

"You go, we'll just be a minute." said Remus. James, Sirius and Peter all shot him questioning looks. The girls left.

"What?" Sirius asked Remus.

"D'you _want _to loose your girlfriend as soon as you've got her?" hissed Remus.

"What are you on about?"

"You can't just ask her why she isn't going out with Sean anymore!"

"Why not?" asked Sirius, clueless. Remus sighed deeply.

"Because she obviously didn't want to talk about it!"

"Really?" Sirius addressed all three of them.

"I didn't notice anything." James replied with a shrug.

"Me neither." said Peter.

"Just… don't ask her about it, OK?" said Remus exasperatedly. He got up from his chair and set off for Charms. Peter followed him.

James exchanged puzzled glances with Sirius and they both walked to Professor Flitwick's class.

In Charms they were learning how to charm everyday objects to life. These spells usually lasted for a few hours for the seventh years, though Professor Flitwick could make them everlasting.

Charms was always the best class to be late to. Professor Flitwick didn't mind, he merely told them squeakily to "settle down".

So they did "settle down", next to Remus and Peter. Remus' impatience with them had vanished, as usual. It never lasted long.

James waved his wand, saying the indication _Afferovita _in his head. The shoe he was charming gave a half-hearted wiggle.

"Bloody shoe! Do something!" said James impatiently.

"Ahh, shut up." slurred Remus' kettle. James gaped. Pureblood he may have been, but being told to shut up by a kitchen utensil was definitely a new experience.

"Heh. Sorry." said Remus sheepishly.

--------

"I don't get that whole Cruciatus Curse thing." said Peter, as they walked from Defence Against the Dark Arts to dinner. "Do you need to want to hurt the person… or just be evil?"

"Why do you need to know, Peter?" joked Kim.

"Oh, come _on._ Look at him." said James, gesturing at Peter. "Wormtail turning out evil is about as likely as _Sirius_ going to Azkaban."

"And anyway, I need to know for DADA." said Peter coolly.

"I think it's just…" Lily started, but trailed off as her eyes saw something to James' right.

James, along with everyone else, looked to see what she was staring at. It was Regulus, with a couple of his Slytherin buddies. James checked Sirius' face. He wasn't looking at his younger brother, but at the floor. Unfortunately, Regulus didn't take the same ignoring tactic.

"I heard you finally got a girlfriend!" he called loud enough for everyone else in the hallways to hear. "What's wrong with her?"

James and the others tried to follow Sirius' example and ignore Regulus. They didn't say anything, although at least half the people around them were staring. To James' surprise, however, Sirius himself said something in response.

"For your information, I've had girlfriends before."

_He's not wrong there._ Thought James. Back in fifth year, Sirius had gone out with four girls at one time.

"Pff. Anyone who thinks you're good looking in any way needs to get their head checked if you ask me." said Regulus, waving an unconcerned hand. Kim turned a pale pink at his words. Most unluckily, Regulus spotted this.

"Oh, Merlin. _This_ is the freak that's going out with you?"

Sirius took a step forward. "_What_ did you just call her?" he asked dangerously.

"A freak." said Regulus simply, as Sirius began to look murderous.

"I think that's our cue to leave." muttered Remus to the others. James, Lily, Remus, Kim and Peter snuck away just in time to hear Sirius yell;

"HOW CAN YOU SAY THAT WITH THE SCUM _YOU_ LIVE WITH?"

"Y'know, Sirius is kind of scary when he's like that." said Kim thoughtfully.

"Better hope Regulus isn't around Hogsmeade on Saturday, eh?" teased Lily.

"Oh, shut up." said Kim, plopping some mashed potato on her plate with extra force, so that blobs of it spattered over Lily's face.

James sniggered. Lily gave him the death glare. James stopped sniggering instantly.

Lily retaliated by wiping the potato off slowly, and rubbing it across Kim's cheek.

A few minutes later, Sirius returned. His lip was split and he was puffing, but he was smiling triumphantly as he sunk into the chair beside Remus. James decided he didn't want to find out why.

"Hey, Prongs, pass the peas will you?" asked Sirius casually, still puffing slightly. James did so.

"You just missed the girls having a food fight." said Peter with a grin.

"Oh, please. It was some mashed potato." said Lily.

"As big a food fight as you'll ever have." said James.

"I'm not so sure." said Remus. "What, with you as her boyfriend."

"That's true." James nodded. He picked up a piece of beef, swimming in gravy, and got ready to aim for Lily.

"Don't you dare." she said. "This is my favourite shirt."

James flicked the beef at Lily. She gasped. "Oh, bring it on, Potter."

And with that, Lily chucked a bean at James. It landed in his hair. Quickly, he flicked it out. With a few of his black hairs still stuck to it, it landed on the plate of a second year.

James, Sirius, Remus, Peter, Lily and Kim watched as the second year, talking animatedly with his friend, picked up the bean with his fork and ate it. They all roared with laughter, causing many stares from surrounding students.

"Oh, well. I never liked that kid much anyway." said James, shaking with mirth.

"At least it wasn't Snivelly's hair." added Sirius.

----------

James was polishing trophies. It was his detention. Thankfully, the caretaker, Pringle, wasn't supervising him. Slowly James pulled a small hand mirror out of his pocked.

"Sirius Black!" he muttered. Sirius' face appeared in the usually-reflective surface.

"Hey, Prongs. What's up?" asked Sirius.

"I smell like polish." complained James.

"At least you're not doing the potions." said Sirius darkly.

"Yeah, I guess." agreed James. There was a sudden smashing noise from Sirius' end of the mirror, and Sirius swore.

"I just spilt some blue potion and it's eating the floor." explained Sirius. "Better go."

"OK." said James. "Good luck."

Sirius' face disappeared from the mirror. James sighed as he turned back to the trophies. His arm was already sore, and there was still over an hour to go. It was going to be a long night.

**A/N:** Ah, the irony of the lame Evil-Wormtail joke. Well, I guess that's another chapter done. Next chappy it's Saturday! Kim and Sirius' date! Ooooh!

Oh, yeah, PremzaW.O.W: I'm not sure if that Charms thing was what you meant, but I thought it turned out OK. So whatev.


	17. The Plan

**A/N:** Whoah, apparently the Evil-Wormtail joke was quite popular! I thought I was going to get, like, all my reviews saying _Ohmigod, that joke was soooo lame. _But instead people found it funny! I'm flattered, PremzaWitchOfWeirdos, Daniya, webling-girl05, DDwelling and zippyfox, I really, really am. OK, this chapter's pretty short. But you have to admit, the update was fast. And as you'll probably be able to tell by the end of this chapter, the next chappy will be a long one.

**Disclaimer:** If you don't get I'm not J.K.R. after reading this many disclaimers, something's wrong with you. Infact, if you didn't get I wasn't J.K.R. _before_ reading disclaimers, there's something wrong with you.

_Rustle, rustle, rustle,_ went some sheets. Lily opened her eyes blearily. Stupid sheets, waking her up.

_Rustle, rustle._ This time it was clearer, as Lily was more awake. There was a loud sigh from the bed next to her.

That meant one thing. Kim was awake. KIM. Awake before (Lily checked the watch on her bedside table) seven thirty on a Saturday morning. What the hell?

And then Lily remembered that it wasn't just any Saturday morning. Slowly, so she wouldn't wake anyone else up, she drew open the curtains around her bed. She was right, Kim was awake. She was lying back on her pillow, head in her palms, staring up at the ceiling.

"Morning." Lily whispered. Kim jumped.

"Oh, morning, Lily. Why are you awake? It's only seven thirty. Couldn't you sleep? I know how you feel. I mean, I'm not sure _why_ I couldn't sleep. I guess it was probably because of the date, but it's no big deal, right? It's only Sirius. I've known him forever. OK, well, seven years, but that's, like, seven seventeenths of my life! But, anyway, I _couldn't_ sleep. Maybe it's because of NEWTs. But they aren't 'till next term. The point is, I couldn't get to sleep. I _think_ it was because of the date… but I don't know. I'm acting nervous, aren't I? Anyway, why are _you_ up so early?" said Kim extremely fast. Lily blinked.

"Because you woke me up. And, yes, you _are_ acting nervous."

"Really? Is it noticeable? I don't want Sirius to know I'm nervous! I mean, I want him to know I'm happy about this date and all, but-"

"Whoa!" said Lily. "Cool it!"

"How can I cool it?" asked Kim hysterically. "I have a date with Sirius in mere hours! What if something goes wrong? Or what if it's only a pity date? Or what if-"

"Breathe." said Lily calmly, for Kim looked as though she were likely to faint from hyperventilation.

"OK…" said Kim with a deep breath. There was a pause.

"Oh no! What the hell am I going to wear?" asked Kim.

"It's no big deal!" said Lily hurriedly.

"You hypocrite! You were having a panic attack about your outfit on Valentines Day!"

"Look, trust me. Sirius isn't going to care what you wear. James didn't!" Kim still looked disbelieving, so Lily added; "We'll find an outfit after breakfast."

So the two girls got out of bed, dressed, and made their way down to breakfast. There was hardly anyone at breakfast, the majority of Hogwarts enjoying the two-day-a-week chance to sleep in.

"What time are you meeting Sirius?" asked Lily.

"Huh?" asked Kim, buttering some toast. "Oh, eleven-thirty. In the Common Room."

"Right."

"Can I borrow your shoes?" asked Kim.

"Which ones?" Lily replied.

"The black, shiny ones."

"Yeah, sure."

"Thanks."

There was a pause.

"Where d'you recon you're gunna go?" asked Lily between mouthfuls.

Kim shrugged. "Hopefully the Three Broomsticks. Maybe Honeydukes, knowing Sirius."

"Yeah, probably." agreed Lily.

----------

"OK, how do I look?" asked Kim, staring into the mirror.

"Great." said Lily truthfully with a nod. Kim had put on a pretty, powder blue halter neck top, along with some jeans. Her brown hair was bunched up in a kind of messy bun.

"D'you recon I should put on some lip-gloss?" asked Kim, pulling at a lock of hair.

"Nah, you probably shouldn't. It'll get smeared all over your face, knowing what you'll be doing." teased Lily.

"Hey!" said Kim, though she smiled. She took another look in the mirror. "Maybe I should change my pants…"

"No time." said Lily. "It's eleven twenty-eight."

"WHAT?" asked Kim, her mouth hanging open.

"Er, Kim?" asked Lily, waving a hand in front of her best friend's face. She didn't move.

"Two minutes." said Kim, barely moving. "_Two minutes_ until I have to go and meet him."

"Actually, one minute now." said Lily. Kim's mouth formed into a kind of silent scream.

"OK, think good thoughts." said Lily, hoping with all her might that Kim wasn't about to faint. "You're going on a date with Sirius! Be happy!"

"Something's going to go wrong. I just know it." said Kim, as Lily half-dragged her out of the dormitory.

Sirius was already in the Common Room. He was leaning against the back of an armchair, talking to James about something or other. Anyone who didn't know him better might think differently, but Lily could tell by his unnatural posture and folded arms that he was as nervous as Kim.

"H-hey." said Kim shakily to announce her presence.

"Oh. Hi." said Sirius.

_Awkward pause…_thought Lily.

"Shall we, uh, get going then?" asked Sirius.

"Yeah, sure." said Kim, managing a smile.

Together, Kim and Sirius left the Common Room. Lily felt her heart swell. It had happened. Kim and Sirius were finally together.

"Well, there they go." said James. "Kind of cute, aren't they?"

Lily grinned. "Yeah."

But five minutes later, Lily was pacing the floor of the Common Room, while James fidgeted in an armchair. They were both thinking of the same thing; Sirius and Kim.

"This is _so_ frustrating!" said Lily.

"I know." nodded James.

"I just want to see what's happening between them!"

"I know." James repeated.

"What d'you recon's going on?"

"I _don't_ know." said James.

Lily sighed. "I guess we'll have to wait until they get back to find out."

"Or _do_ we?" said James, eyes shinning.

"What?"

"Wait here." instructed James. Then, without another word, he ran up to his dormitory. Puzzled, Lily sat down on the armchair and waited for him to come back.

About a minute and a half later, James returned, clutching some floaty, silvery material.

"What is that?" asked Lily, reaching out to touch it.

"Invisibility Cloak." said James.

"Where'd you get it?" asked Lily in awe. "They must be so expensive."

"I inherited it off my Dad." replied James. "It's really come in useful for pranks over the years. It's too small to cover me, Sirius, Remus and Peter anymore, but I think it'll be able to hide just you and me…"

"So you're suggesting that we use this to follow Sirius and Kim?" asked Lily.

"Yep." replied James. There was a silence, then;

"There's just _one _hitch." said James. "The invisibility cloak only hides people…"

"Uh huh," said Lily.

"That is to say, it doesn't hide clothes. So if you _really_ want to turn invisible…"

"WHAT?" Lily exploded, causing some stares from people around. She lowered her voice, but still said rather viciously, "I have to go_ nude?_"

"OK, OK," laughed James. "I was just kidding. But the look on your face was priceless."

"Hmph." grumbled Lily, using all her self-control to keep her face disapproving and not laugh aswell.

"So… are you coming or not?" asked James.

"OK," said Lily, as James whipped the cloak around both of them. After all, what could go wrong?

"Let's go."

**A/N:** I'm feeling particularly evil today, so I think I'll just leave it there. Mua ha ha! OK, so the cliffie's really lame, I felt like writing one anyway. Hehe. Review and I promise the update will be faster than if you don't.


	18. The Dangers of Free Samples

**A/N:** Back again! I'm sooo glad to finally be writing this chapter! It's going to be so much fun! I'm not gunna postpone this any longer, but thanks to PremzaWitchOfWeirdos, webling-girl05, ourlittlesecret7, DDwelling, Saber12, Heart of the Phoenix and zippyfox.

**Disclaimer:** Everything is JKR's but the plotline of this story. Actually, even some of that's not mine. PremzaWitchOfWeirdos gave me some ideas for this chapter, and rupertisahottie05 gave me a scene back in chapter five.

Lily crept slowly under the Invisibility Cloak next to James. It was, to say the least, thrilling to be this close to him. She could smell his very individual smell, like soap and rolled oats at the same time. She took a great whiff of him and, inhaling some dust, sneezed.

"Shh!" shushed James.

"I didn't mean to!" whispered Lily indignantly. "And why does it matter if I'm quiet now, anyway? We're not following them yet. We've only just left the Hogwarts grounds!"

"Yeah, but if anyone hears us they'll work out we're invisible."

"Whatever."

"Any idea where Sirius and Kim went?" asked James. Lily thought for a second.

"Yes!"

"Really?"

"Well, sort of. When I asked Kim where she thought she and Sirius were going to go, she said the Three Broomsticks or Honeydukes."

"Cool. Well, the Three Broomsticks is just over there," James pointed, his invisible finger accidentally poking into the back of a fifth year, who looked around questioningly, "We might as well check in there."

"Yeah." agreed Lily. The two heads shuffled slowly towards the door of the three broomsticks. Lily had her hand on the door when James pulled it back.

"We've got to wait until someone _else_ opens the door!"

"Why?" asked Lily. James looked at her with his eyebrows raised.

"How would it look it the door opened of its own accord?"

"Erm… like there was a really strong wind?" suggested Lily meekly.

"You don't have much pranking experience, do you?" asked James.

"Not much, n-" but Lily was cut off as the door was pushed open from the inside. A six year, Dirk Cresswell, left the pub with his girlfriend. Lily and James both jumped at the chance and fought their way inside, causing Dirk to stare around wildly for what had pushed him into the doorframe.

"We were almost caught then!" whispered James. "Did it ever occur to you that you've got to shut up when we're invisible?"

"_Me_ shut up? You were the one that asked me a question!"

"As you well know, when I ask you a question you don't always need to answer!"

"What's _that_ supposed to mean?"

"At least half the times I asked you out, you ignored me! You couldn't have done it again, when it really counted, could you?"

"It's not like-" Lily was cut off once again, however, as a woman made her way to the door and they both had to shuffle sideways.

"OK." said James, once the coast was clear. "Let's forget it, and just look for Padfoot."

Lily nodded and scanned the pub. She couldn't see them, but then the Three Broomsticks was always very crowded.

"There!" said James, pointing to a far corner. He was right; it was unmistakably Kim and Sirius.

"Wait," said Lily, tugging on his sleeve.

"Yeah?" asked James, with a slight edge of impatience in his voice.

"Look… if they start doing anything we really don't want to see, we leave, agreed?"

"Definitely." said James. "I don't want to watch them snog for hours."

"Odd," said Lily cheekily. "I was always under the impression that you _enjoyed_ snogging for hours!"

"Sod off." said James, but with good humour. They shambled as quietly as possible to Kim and Sirius' table.

"…I've never really thought about it too much." Kim was saying. "A Healer would be pretty cool, though. That's what my Mum recons I should do, too."

"Yeah, you'd make a good Healer." said Sirius.

"How about you?"

"No idea whatsoever."

"An Auror?" Kim insisted. "A Quidditch player? A potioneer?"

"I guess an Auror would be OK. I'm not exactly the type to have a quiet life."

Kim laughed and took a sip from her butterbeer. "That's true."

There was a pause, but not an uncomfortable one.

"The worst part about being a Healer would be that you'd have to see all those sick and injured people," said Kim. "Especially with the war and all."

"Yeah." agreed Sirius. "That would suck." With a thud, he put down his butterbeer. "I've finished my drink. D'you want to go have a look around some shops?"

"OK." Kim put down her tankard, stood up, and she and Sirius left the bar. Lily and James grinned at one another and, after waiting a few seconds, followed the exiting couple.

"Where d'you want to go?" asked Sirius.

Kim shrugged. "_Not_ Zonkos." she said with a smile. "I don't trust you in there."

"Aw, damn." Sirius groaned. "Fine then, what about Honeydukes?"

"Yeah, alright." agreed Kim. Suddenly Lily felt something press down upon her foot.

"Ow!" she said fairly loudly, as James sheepishly removed his foot from on top of hers. Kim and Sirius looked around for the source of the noise.

"What the hell was that?" asked Kim.

"I dunno." replied Sirius. "Although…" but he paused. "Nah, never mind."

They walked on a little more and turned into Honeydukes. As usual, the delectable aroma of toffee, chocolate, fruit and sweets wafted into Lily's nostrils.

"I can never get tired of Honeydukes." said Kim.

"Yeah," said Sirius. "But then again, who can?"

Kim and Sirius moved to have a look in the 'Special Effects Sweets' by the counter. Lily and James remained a few paces behind them.

James sighed, staring avidly at all of the sweets. "It would be so easy just to nick stuff under this."

"_James!_" scorned Lily.

"It was only a joke." mumbled James.

"I understand how you got all those Chocolate Frogs at the Quidditch Final party in fifth year, now." she muttered, and they took a few more steps forwards, so as to hear what Sirius and Kim were saying.

"…James dared Peter to eat an Acid Pop. Madam Pomfrey got so pissed at us." said Sirius with a laugh. Kim giggled.

"My older sister, Dorcas, once ate a live slug, thinking it was a Jelly Slug." said Kim. Sirius chuckled.

"Yum! Look!" whispered James to Lily, pointing to a tray that had a huge amount of massive sherbet balls on it and said in large, bright letters; _FREE SAMPE: FIZZING WHIZBEES. Only one per customer, please._

"James, don't…" warned Lily in an undertone.

"What? It's not like I'm stealing or anything. See,_ free sample._" James' hand snuck from underneath the Invisibility Cloak, and he grabbed a sherbet ball.

"But, James, they're _Fizzing Whizbees!_" said Lily.

"So?"

"_So_, they're-" Lily started. James put the Fizzing Whizbee in his mouth. "-special effects sweets." finished Lily with dread.

James swore, as his feet floated up above the floor. Higher and higher he rose, until the Cloak had been raised above Lily's knees.

"Imbecile!" hissed Lily with a sigh. Still, there was a tiny, incy wincy chance that Kim and Sirius might not see her legs standing by themselves without a body above them.

"What the?" asked Kim, pointing at Lily's knees. OK, maybe not.

Sirius' eyes widened with comprehension. Lily knew he was placing the pieces of the puzzle together. Then he reached out and pulled the Cloak off of James and the rest of Lily.

There was a long, billowing silence, during which Kim stared with wide eyes, Sirius looked at them with an unreadable expression, Lily glared up at James and James had the decency to look incredibly guilty.

Then, without warning, Sirius began to laugh. His loud laughter echoed throughout the entire sweet shop. Kim joined him, until both of them were practically rolling around on the floor, clutching their sides. Everyone in Honeydukes had turned to look at them.

"Oh, man. You _followed _us?" Sirius managed to choke out.

"Um… yeah." said James. An unspoken 'Duh!' lingered in the air.

"That's a _brilliant _idea!" Sirius grinned. He exchanged a high-five with James. Lily rolled her eyes. Well, at least they'd made up. She just hoped that Kim would be as forgiving.

"Er, sorry." said Lily.

"It's OK." said Kim, wiping tears of laughter from her eyes. "If I'd had the idea, I would've done the same thing on Valentines Day. How'd you do it, _Animadverto_?"

"Nope, James' Invisibility Cloak." Sirius answered for Lily, showing Kim the flowing material he was holding.

"I guess we'll let you get back to your date, then." said Lily with a laugh.

"A little help?" said James, still levitating. Lily sighed and pulled him down to the ground. He floated back up a few inches. She pulled him down again. He floated back up. Lily made a noise of impatience and pulled him down again. James snickered.

Sirius took out his wand, waved it lazily, and James fell back down to the floor with a thump that rattled the jars on the shelves. He shrugged and he and Lily left the shop. Once the door behind them tinkled shut, they both burst out laughing.

"You dolt!" accused Lily. "You're never allowed a free sample ever again!"

"They're _free_ though!" said James in his own defence. "And it's not like they cared too much. It's almost as if they expected us."

"With a best friend like you, it's no wonder that Sirius expected it."

"Oh, quit the whole _you're-a-Pothead_ thing, will you?" asked James. "We both know you're madly in love with me."

"That I am." replied Lily. "But that doesn't change the fact that you're a Pothead."

"Yeah, yeah." James waved a hand carelessly. "You want to go grab a butterbeer?"

"Sure." grinned Lily. The pair walked to the Three Broomsticks, found a table (coincidentally, the same one as Sirius and Kim had been sitting on earlier) and James bought two bottles of butterbeer.

"If either of them change their minds and get mad, I'm so blaming you." said Lily.

"It's just as much your fault as mine!" said James indignantly.

"Whatever." Lily rolled her eyes.

"Well, I guess I _did_ kind of suggest that we follow them, and I stepped on your foot, _and_ I was the one that ate the Fizzing Whizbee, but you agreed to-"

James broke off as Lily leant across the table and kissed him. Ignoring the sniggers coming from the table to her right, Lily discovered that James was right; it was indeed an effective way to shut someone up.

**A/N: **I hope that turned out OK. I actually quite like this chapter (so you'll probably hate it, but there you go.) Yeah… review! Pretty please?


	19. An Attempted Quidditch Match

**A/N: **What up? This is the first chapter since, like, chapter NINE that I haven't had a clue what I'm gunna write! Probably why the update was longer that usual. OK, yeah, thanks to MagicMist, amaal, azimataiji, zippyfox, DDwelling, webling-girl05, Harlz18, maRU! (Whoah, cool!), ourlittlesecret7 and PremzaWitchOfWeirdos for reviews!

**Disclaimer:** Solus somnium concedo ego procul exsisto mirus scriptor. Well, duh.

Lily looked up from _A Witch's Guide to Surviving NEWTs_ as Kim walked into the dormitory with a silly smile on her face. She plopped herself down next to Lily on her bed and sighed happily.

"I'm guessing it went well, then?" asked Lily.

"You should know." said Kim. "You were there half the time."

"That's so not true." replied Lily. "It's six-thirty. You found out we were following you and twelve-fifteen at the latest. That gives you, like, six hours alone."

"Whoa…" said Kim. "Was it really six hours?"

"Oh, quit trying to change the subject. What the hell were you doing all that time?" Lily asked.

"Er…"

"No, actually, I don't want to know." Lily said. There was a moment's pause. "Yes I do. What happened?"

"Nothing much. We just sort of walked around and talked."

"And snogged?"

"And snogged." agreed Kim, her cheeks flushing very faintly.

"Well, it sounds like you had a _fun_ day." said Lily with a grin.

"Very. What did you do all day?"

"Oh, hung out with James in Hogsmeade. Until about four, when I came back here."

"By 'hung out' I presume you mean snogged?"

"Eh," Lily shrugged. "Basically. We managed to get some talking in there."

"Unlike us." laughed Kim.

----------

The next morning dawned bright and sunny. At eight-thirty, Lily and Kim got up and went to breakfast. On their way to the Great Hall, they found the Marauders.

"Hi, guys!" called Kim. The four boys turned around with very guilty looks on their faces.

"Uh… hi!" said Peter brightly.

"Yeah, hi." said a bitter voice from above Lily's head. She looked up to see Severus Snape dangling by his belt from a large chandelier.

"James!" said Lily exasperatedly.

"Uh, yeah?" asked James guiltily.

Lily groaned. "I guess there's no point in telling you to put him down. Have you had breakfast yet?"

"Yeah." replied Remus.

"Alright, we'll see you later then." said Kim, and she practically skipped down the Entrance Hall. Lily shrugged and followed her.

"You're in a good mood this morning." grinned Lily as they sat down. Kim shrugged.

"Maybe I accidentally swallowed some Essence of Euphoria." She said thickly between mouthfuls.

"That's entirely possible." said Lily. "You're so high I wouldn't be surprised if you flew."

Rather than laughing, however, Kim looked thoughtful. "Hey, yeah! When was the last time you rode a broom?"

"I don't know… not recently." said Lily. "Why?"

"You wanna play some one on one Quidditch?" asked Kim.

"No." said Lily shortly.

"Why not?"

"A. where would we play? B. I don' t have a broom. C. It's a totally unfair game if it's you playing me. You're pure blooded! You've grown up with Quidditch!"

"That's not true! My Dad was muggle-born, you know that. I'm a half-blood." said Kim.

"Same thing." Lily retorted.

"OK…" Kim thought for a moment. "We get the boys to play. You and James versus me and Sirius. I don't think the pitch is booked today, and James can get access to it, 'cause he's the captain. And you could borrow one of the school brooms."

Well, Lily reflected, James _was_ the captain of the Gryffindor team. That meant one expert player and one lousy player on their team. Unless Remus or Peter wanted to play, which was unlikely. Sirius was an excellent player, and Kim was a good flyer but her reflexes weren't that great, which meant almost equal amounts of skill on each team.

"Meet you on the Quidditch pitch in ten minutes." said Lily.

"You're on."

----------

"We need to set up some rules for this." said Sirius.

"OK, well each team has two Chasers, right?" asked James.

"Right."

"And the Chasers can defend the hoops aswell, so we've got a Keeper."

"Are we gunna have Bludgers or the Snitch?" asked Kim.

"I don't think we can." replied James. "Unless you want to play, Moony? Or Wormtail?"

"Nah, I'll keep score, though." said Remus.

"Hey, I've been meaning to ask, what's with you guys' nicknames?" asked Kim.

"Er…" said James, looking at the other three Marauders.

"Well," began Sirius. "We-"

"We made them up one day a few summers ago, at James' house." said Remus smoothly.

"Um, yeah. What he said." agreed Peter. "So are you guys going to get playing or what?"

"Yep." said James, mounting his broom. He looked relieved that Remus had come up with a satisfactory excuse. Lily, Sirius and Kim did the same.

"And theeeey'rrre off!" called Remus from the stands. "It's Potter with the Quaffle! He's-"

"Shut up!" yelled Sirius. "Commentating is distracting enough in games as it is!"

"Sorry." muttered Remus, although no one but Peter could hear him.

James passed to Lily, who caught it. Sirius zoomed at her and she screamed and dropped it.

"That was so not fair!" James complained. Sirius grinned tauntingly at him and scored a goal. James demonstrated a rude hand gesture that made Kim laugh.

James flew forwards and wrenched the Quaffle out of Sirius' grip. He glided down the pitch, Sirius on his trail, and attempted to score when Sirius shot forwards and batted it out away with the tail of his broomstick.

"Oooh! I'm open!" said Lily, as James caught the Quaffle bouncing off the back of Sirius' broom. James ignored her and sped down the length of the pitch to score yet another goal.

"Sirius! Pass already!" called Kim. Sirius didn't turn to her, but rather took the Quaffle from James and attempted to get past him. Kim growled impatiently.

"Is it possible to get their attention?" Lily asked her, flying forwards.

"I can think of _one_ way…"

"Yeah?"

"Oh my gosh, look guys! A huge vat of ice-cream is falling from the sky!" yelled Kim, pointing up. James and Sirius didn't take any heed of this, but continued their 'Quidditch match.'

"Did we really ever expect them to let us play properly?" asked Kim.

"No way, we'd spoil their chances of winning." said Lily in a half-bitter voice.

"Boys will be boys." shrugged Kim.

"Unfortunately." nodded Lily, and they both drifted back down onto the stands, where Remus was rolling around under the seats laughing.

"What's up with you?" asked Kim.

"He – believed – ice – cream – ha!" gasped Remus.

"Um," said Lily.

"When you said that thing about the ice-cream, Peter looked up and went 'Where?'!"

"Merlin, shut _up_." sighed Peter as Lily and Kim both giggled.

"You really though a vat of ice-cream was going to fall from the sky?"

"_You_ expected Padfoot and Prongs to believe it." Peter pointed out reasonably.

"Yeah, well… _they're_ guys." explained Kim. Peter looked highly offended.

"Hey! Why aren't you playing anymore?" James yelled from his broom.

"You just noticed?" Lily called back with a roll of her eyes.

"Er, yeah." said James sheepishly. He and Sirius flew down and hovered by them in the stands.

"What's the score?" Sirius asked Remus.

"Er… to tell the truth, I lost count after the second goal." Remus admitted.

"You're hopeless." said Sirius, shaking his head.

"Bit rich coming from you." Kim put in.

"That's not the feeling I got from you yesterday." grinned Sirius. Kim blushed a bright crimson.

"Yeah, well…" Kim looked struggled. "You're an idiot!" Everyone laughed.

"Great comeback, Kim." said Sirius sardonically. Kim stuck her tongue out at him. Sirius opened his mouth to speak.

"Don't you dare." said Kim. Lily suspected that Kim, like her, had worked out the comment Sirius was going to make about Kim's tongue.

"Hey, Lils, look!" said James, standing up on his broom handle. "No hands!"

"Imbecile." muttered Lily.

"James, stop showing off in front of Lily." said Remus simply. James' face flushed. Then he wobbled.

"Oh crap." said James, as he fell a few feet off of his broomstick and into a large pile of mud on the ground.

"Real smooth, Prongs." said Sirius with disdain.

"Mud tastes like… like sand and water." said James, spitting out a mouthful of brown yuck.

**A/N:** Yes, a random and non-essential and short chapter, but it's, like, the middle of the night (PremzaWOW will tell you, she's sitting right next to me) and I had REALLY bad writers block for this chapter. So remember to review, and give me ideas if possible… I really appreciate them!


	20. PFMS and Unpleasant Smelling Liquid

**A/N:** Well, after a review from Harlz18, I felt challenged to update as fast as I possibly could. So here we go. And the usual thanks goes to maRU, Tahirisolo90, webling-gir05, frenchfriesrule, TombRaider999, zippyfox, Saber12, PremzaWitchOfWeirdos and Harlz18.

**Disclaimer:** Jeez, I'm running out of original disclaimers here. Oh well, I'll just copy one of my friends' ones. Roses are red, violets are blue, I don't own HP, so please don't sue!

"Now, did anyone read the _Daily Prophet_ this morning?" Professor Assero asked her seventh year Defence Against the Dark Arts class. A majority of the class raised their hands.

"Can you tell me what the front page article was about, Mr Martin?"

"Uh… seven Death Eaters attacked a witch in a town near London, Professor."

"Correct. Now, the Death Eaters attacked her with a variety of spells, some of which couldn't be blocked with a simple Shield Charm. However, there are many defensive spells she _could_ have used against them. Does anyone know what they could be? Mr Lupin?"

"Oh… well, she could have used the Impediment Jinx." said Remus.

"Very true, ten points to Gryffindor." said Assero. "Although this would only slow down the Death Eaters, instead of stopping them entirely."

"Couldn't she Apparate away from them in that time, though?" asked Alice from the front of the classroom.

"An excellent point." agreed Assero. "But imagine if this woman were only a fourth or fifth year student at Hogwarts, and was cornered by Death Eaters. What other spells would be available for them to use, Miss Vance?"

"Um… Stupefy?" Emmeline suggested with a shrug.

"There _is_ a problem with using a Stunning Spell," said Assero. "Has anyone worked out what that might be?" a few members of the class raised their hands. "Meadowes?"

"Oh, er, maybe it would take her too long to stun them all or something, because you can usually only stun one person at a time." Kim guessed.

"Correct." said Assero. "So far we've come up with two spells that affect the _whole_ body, can-" But she was cut off as the bell rung. "Alright, class, that's it for today. I'd like you all to choose a spell that this witch could have used and write a sixteen inch essay on why you think it would have been so effective. Due next Monday."

There was the usual scrabbling noise of chairs and books as the class shoved their books into their bags and ran, chattering, out of the classroom and to dinner.

"I got homework in every blooming class today." complained Lily. James sniggered. "What are you laughing at? You're in the same classes as me!" James stopped sniggering.

"We didn't get homework for Charms, did we?" he asked.

"Yeah, we have to work out what charm we would make if we were gunna invent one." said Sirius.

"True. Hey, Moony-?"

"No, you can't, Prongs." said Remus. "Do your own bloody homework." And with that he stormed ahead of them.

"What's up with him?" Lily asked James in a low voice.

"It's nothing. Just PFMS." James muttered back, looking over his shoulder to check no one was listening.

"Huh?"

"OK, as a girl, you get PMS, right?" said James. Lily was a bit startled.

"Um… yeah…"

"Well, Moony gets PFMS. Pre-Full Moon Syndrome." explained James. Lily giggled.

----------

Remus didn't show up at dinner, but as soon as she walked into the Common Room, Lily could see him. He was sitting by himself in a group of armchairs, his head resting on his arms, staring into the fire. Lily, James, Sirius, Peter and Kim plopped themselves down next to him, and he looked up distractedly.

"Sorry, Moony, mate." said James. "But I _was_ only going to ask if I could borrow that Charms book of yours."

"Oh." said Remus. "Well, sorry. Yeah, you can use it. I won't need it tonight."

Kim shrugged and pulled a book out of her bag, opened it and began to read. Peter took a bag of Gobstones out of his bag and challenged Sirius to a game. Remus produced a bar of chocolate from his pocket and began to munch, his eyes closed dreamily.

"I love chocolate…" he murmured.

"So… what sort of a Charm would _you_ invent?" Lily asked James.

"Well, if you'd asked me at the beginning of the year, I would've said a charm that could make a girl that's hated for you for six years instantly fall in love with you." replied James. "But now I have no idea."

"That's not a Charm… you'd need a really powerful potion for something like that." said Lily.

"OK, OK, jeez. I was just trying to suck up to you!"

Lily snorted and rolled her eyes. James grinned in an irritating, smart-aleck way that made Lily want to hit him and kiss him at the same time.

"Well, I'm off to the library. Night, all." said Remus. There was a general murmur of "G'night" from everyone, and Remus swung his bag over his shoulder and left the Common Room. There was a faint clicking noise, and then an unpleasant squelching sound.

"Puh!" spat Peter, wiping some nasty-smelling liquid off of his face. "I hate Gobstones!"

"Yeah, well that's only because you always lose." said James.

"And _that's_ why you don't currently have a girlfriend." agreed Sirius. "Girls don't date losers."

"OK, that _so_ doesn't make sense." said Lily. "_All_ guys are losers. Especially you, Pothead."

"Excuse me? _Who_ won our Quidditch match on Sunday?" asked James.

"We don't know, Remus forgot to score." said Kim, with an aura of 'duh!' in her voice.

"Oh, please. It wasso me."

"Was not!" said Sirius.

"Who cares?" asked Lily. "My point is, unless all females in the world turned gay, there is no way girls couldn't date losers."

There was a silence that Lily knew could only mean neither James, Sirius nor Peter could think of a comeback. She and Kim exchanged a grin.

"I guess it's OK to like losers if they're good-looking losers." Kim said to Lily.

"So that's why you like me, hey?" asked Sirius.

"No, I like you because… wait, why _do_ I like you?"

In response, Sirius whispered something into Kim's ear. She gave a sideways glance at him, gave a giggle and said. "Oh, yeah… I remember now."

"Yeah, it's _me_ that's liked because they're hot." said James.

"I don't think hot would be the correct way to describe you." said Lily with raised eyebrows. James gave her a kiss on the cheek.

"Gag me." muttered Peter. "I'm surrounded by couples!"

The other four laughed. Peter took advantage of the distraction and flicked a Gobstone forwards, knocking one of Sirius' and causing his face to become covered in bad-smelling liquid. Kim went back to her book. Lily took to staring out the window. It was then when she noticed the moon. It was a weird colour… sort of blue-ish grey… but Lily was paying more attention to the fact that it was full. Why were James, Sirius and Peter still with them? Shouldn't they have been down at the Shrieking Shack with Remus by now? Had they forgotten?

"Hey, look, at the moon!" said Lily, pointing out the window. Kim blinked at her.

"What?"

"Look at the moon! Isn't it bright tonight?" Lily exclaimed. The others turned to look out the window.

"Not really…" said Peter, looking puzzled.

"I guess, but it's so pretty when it's _full._" said Lily, shooting James a meaningful look.

"Is it just me, or does it look a weird colour to you?" asked Kim.

"Oh, it's a blue moon tonight." said Sirius._ Blue moon…_ thought Lily. _What does that mean for Remus?_

"Whoa!" said Kim.

"What happens to werewolves on blue moons, d'you think?" asked Lily, trying to make the question sound careless, and like she wasn't really that interested.

"Maybe they turn blue." joked Kim.

"I think I read somewhere that they transform, but still keep their own mind." said Sirius.

"Yeah, I heard that, too." agreed James. "So they're like an animagi."

Lily was bursting to ask where Remus was, but she obviously couldn't do so in front of Kim. She thought of asking 'Where do you think a werewolf would go at a blue moon if there was one at Hogwarts?' But that would be way too obvious.

"That's pretty cool. Once in a blue moon, hey?" said Kim. She grinned and her eyes flicked back to the book she was reading.

_Where's Remus?_ Lily mouthed at James.

_At the Hospital Wing. _James mouthed back._ I think._

Lily nodded. "I recon I'll get started on that Defence Against the Dark Arts essay." She said aloud.

"Yeah, I probably will too." said James. Lily's jaw dropped. Kim's head snapped up, her eyes wide.

"You _what?_"

"I'll probably start my homework…" said James. There was a billowing silence, as everyone present stared at the head boy. "Um, is there something wrong with that?"

"You're starting your homework?" asked Kim.

"And you could be playing pranks or discussing Quidditch or whatever?" asked Peter.

"And worse, you're doing it _willingly?_" said Sirius. "Like… Lily didn't even _try _to force you?"

"Hey," said James, shrugging and pulling some spare parchment out of his bag. "I guess the expression's right. _Once in a blue moon…_"

**A/N:** So I want to do some nice and random chapters before it gets a little more serious throughout the next seven or eight chapters. If that ever starts to annoy you, let me know, and I'll get to the serious stuff faster that I planned. Er, yeah… please please PLEASE review!


	21. Two Stupid Owls

**A/N:** Sorry about the looooonnng wait for an update… and this chapter is so short, but my computer got reimaged, I recently had my Tae-Kwon Do grading, I've got a gymnastics competition coming up and am being given bloody days worth of homework for the end of term, PLUS my Document Manager was screwed. Yeah… Luna32, Raekitty13, webling-girl05, Harlz18, PremzaWitchOfWeirdos, writerchick13, and frenchfriesrule are awesome. Thanks.

**Disclaimer:** I'd say I was JKR, but I might get sued for seriously injuring someone when his or her head hit the floor and cracked after laughing too hard.

"James, have you seen Kim?" Lily asked, tapping the Marauder on the shoulder. He turned around with his mouth full of baked beans.

"Pofaf eeo mak enow suweh wa pfut." He replied

"Yes, James, I really understood what you just said." said Lily sarcastically.

"Probably off making out somewhere with Padfoot." James clarified, having swallowed.

"Mmm, I haven't seen Sirius all morning, either." agreed Remus wearily.

"How was the Hospital Wing?" asked Lily.

"Alright." said Remus. "I'm not as sore as I usually am after… you know…"

A fourth year Hufflepuff passing the table, apparently hearing what Remus said, looked very disturbed and actually stopped walking to stare at them.

"Experiencing your furry little problem." James put in, eyeing the Hufflepuff suspiciously. He shrugged and walked off with raised eyebrows.

"Manage to get any sleep?" asked Lily.

"Not really." said Remus with a shrug. Lily smiled sympathetically and took a seat at the Gryffindor table. She had just started on her cereal when something fell from above her and landed with a splash in her cornflakes.

"What the-?" asked Peter.

"Ah… that would be mine." Remus said as Lily brought a wet copy of the _Daily Prophet_ out of her bowl. "Sorry – I guess the owl must've been really stupid or something."

"It's OK." said Lily, and handed him his paper.

"So… do you think-"

"Merlin." muttered Remus.

"What?" asked James. Remus turned the wet-but-still-legible copy of the _Daily Prophet_ towards them. A large headline jumped out at Lily.

_**DEATH EATERS AT DIAGON ALLEY: SIXTY-ONE DEAD** _

_Death tolls reach over four hundred as You-Know-Who's followers, known as 'Death Eaters', show they are afraid to show themselves in daylight no longer. An attack on popular wizarding marketplace, Diagon Alley-_

But Lily was cut off from reading as Remus turned his paper around and began to read it himself.

"Whoa – sixty-one people dead." said James. "I hope none of my family were at Diagon Alley yesterday."

"At least I know none of _mine_ were." said Lily.

"Lucky you."

----------

Sirius and Kim turned up late to Charms, both looking slightly flushed. Lily and Remus exchanged grins, whilst James had to stuff his fist in his mouth to prevent himself from laughing aloud.

"Now, you should all know-"

"Ow! My finger!" said James, nursing his index finger, which had a deep bite mark running around the knuckle. Lily giggled.

Professor Flitwick cleared his throat. "As I was saying, you should all know which Charm you would devise by now. By the end of the year, you should all be able to know enough to be able to actually create it before your NEWTs."

A unanimous _"Cool!"_ came from the class.

"Although before we even try to fabricate a Charm, we need to research into the different components."

The class groaned. On further squeaky instruction from Professor Flitwick, they brought their textbooks out and began to take notes. Or rather, began to _pass_ notes.

_Why were you and Sirius so late, huh? (wink wink)_ wrote Lily.

_I don't see why that's any of your business._ Kim replied.

_Ahem! BFF here!_

_Yeah, well, that doesn't mean I can't keep a snog with my boyfriend private. _

_Haha! That was stupid._

_Damnit!_

Lily and Kim grinned sideways along at each other.

Down along the table, Sirius was scribbling something on his parchment, James and Remus were laughing at something or other (_Probably Snape,_ thought Lily) and Peter was snoring loudly, his head rested in his arms.

"Pettigrew!" squeaked Flitwick. Peter's head shot up.

"I didn't steal the chipolatas!"

"Right…" muttered Kim, and she and Lily both giggled.

----------

_It's so black… and messy… and that little bit that sticks up at the back is so cute… and-_

A tap at the window interrupted Lily's thoughts on James' hair. Peter got up to open the window. A screech owl flew in and over their heads. There was a plopping sound.

"Oh… gross." said Remus, showing the circle of armchairs the large, wet owl dropping lying on one of the open pages of his book. "I was reading that!"

"Sucker." said Sirius.

The owl landed on the table and held its leg out to James, who detached the letter bound to it. The owl soared up again (Remus closed the pages of his book protectively) and banged into the window with a loud thwack. Sirius sniggered. It ruffled its feathers and flew out the open proportion of the window.

Lily exchanged a confused glance with Kim, whilst Remus took his wand out and removed the owl dropping, James ripped open and read the letter, Peter coughed and Sirius itched the side of his neck.

"Awesome! Guess what my Dad got!" James exclaimed enthusiastically, his eyes skimming down the last few inches of the parchment.

"What?" asked Sirius.

"Ten tickets to the Quidditch World Cup in Czechoslovakia! July this year!"

"_Ten_ tickets?" asked Kim exasperatedly.

"Yeah, one for him, Mum, me, Padfoot, Moony, Wormtail, Lily, you, my Uncle David and cousin, Alan."

"Me?" asked Kim. "Do your family even know who I am?"

"Well, they know you're Lily's best friend and they know I'm dating Lily. So they bought one extra just in case. And I _think_ your Mum used to work with my Mum. Or went to Hogwarts with her. Or something."

"Czechoslovakia! That's so cool!" said Remus. "My Grandad was from the Czech Republic."

"Yeah, it'll be nice to go somewhere like that after Hogwarts is over." agreed Lily. "Although we'll have to apparate there, I suppose." Lily shuddered. She didn't like apparating; it always made her feel sick.

"That must've cost your Dad a fortune, Prongs." said Peter.

"Eh." shrugged James. "What do I care? It's not _my_ money!"

"You're so mean." laughed Lily.

"They're my _parents._" James retorted.

"Yeah, exactly. They raised you, put up with you until you were eleven-or-so, fed you twenty-four hours a day… they deserve plenty of credit." Remus put in.

"Yeah, and now the House Elves feed me," said James. "And you guys need to put up with me."

"Poor us." said Sirius. "Hey, did you read about the attack on Diagon Alley yesterday?" he added.

"Yeah." said Peter.

"It landed in my cornflakes." said Lily.

"Err… what?" Kim raised an eyebrow.

"The _Daily Prophet_ fell in my cornflakes." explained Lily. Kim made a noise of amusement.

"Is it just me, or are owls getting stupider and stupider?" she asked.

There was a pause. "What d'you think we'll all be doing by July?" asked Peter quietly. "When we go to the World Cup, I mean."

"Dunno…" said James.

"Lily and James will probably be married by then." snickered Kim. Lily whacked her on the arm.

"Have you heard about this Order of the Phoenix thing?" asked Remus.

"My parents are in it," said James. "No idea what it does, though."

"I overheard my dad talking to someone in the fire." said Remus. "From what I could tell, it was an organization against Voldemort."

"_Say bloody You-Know-Who!_" hissed Peter.

"We should join after school, then," said Sirius.

"I wouldn't be so sure," said James. "I think Dumbledore and McGonagall are members."

"So?" asked Lily.

"So… that would mean seeing teachers _after we've left school!_" explained Sirius as though stating the obvious. James shuddered.

"Dumbledore isn't exactly a teacher." said Kim.

"Well, still…" said Peter. "_McGonagall._"

"I don't think I'll ever want to see a teacher again after NEWTs." admitted Lily. "They've gotta be pretty bad if they're worse than OWLs."

"Well, we'll be facing them soon enough." said Remus. There was a dramatic silence, then;

"Dun dun dun dunnnnnn…" sung James.

**A/N:** That James-biting-his-finger thing actually happened in my Drama class a few weeks ago, and I couldn't help but put it in. Lol. And what about that article in the _Daily Prophet_? Was anyone known to MWWP hurt? How about Lily and Kim? Why am I asking you questions I already know the answer to?

…Review!


	22. Steroid Fed Rabbits & Plans to Get Drunk

**A/N:** YAY! HOORAY FOR HOLIDAYS! Finally, no homework for at least a fortnight! Yes. Well, I was quite interested in the reaction to the _Daily Prophet_ article. I got a comment from pretty much all of my reviewers – webling-girl05, frenchfriesrule, zippyfox, szabatka2, Raekitty10 andPremzaWitchOfWeirdos! Hmmm… well, there are plenty of things I want to say in response, but I kinda can't. (Whistles innocently).

**Disclaimer:** Yes, OK, if anyone's _really_ that gullible… I _am_ JKR! I own all of the Harry Potter books and associated trademarks and characters. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to run away from all those British lawyers chasing me with pitchforks and torches.

On Friday morning, Lily woke up with a chill. She didn't know why, but she suddenly felt like there was something wrong. The curtains of her four-poster were shut, so she didn't know what was outside her bed. Taking her willow wand from her beside table, she slowly drew her curtains open.

There she saw… nothing. With a shrug, she rubbed her eyes, got out of bed, changed into her robes and headed down to the Great Hall for an early breakfast. Very few people were there at the early hour of six thirty-two in the morning. Lily grumbled and helped herself to the kippers lying in a golden dish.

After finishing a large plateful of breakfast, the Marauders and Kim showed up. As soon as Sirius sat down, he brought a piece of parchment out of his bag and began to write rapidly upon it.

"Post's here." commented Remus as hundreds of owls flew over their heads. One landed in front of Sirius. He pocketed it, presumably to read it later.

"What're you doing?" asked Lily. Sirius didn't respond.

"He hasn't finished his Transfiguration essay," said Remus for him. Lily swore.

"I haven't either!" she explained, grabbing a quill, her unfinished essay and an ink bottle out of her bag. James chuckled. While she would have normally cursed his nose off, Lily thought that it was more important that she get her essay done.

_Human transfiguration is only legal under…_ "Ahh! When _is_ human transfiguration legal?" she asked.

"For educational purposes, with the Ministry's permission, if you're a metamorphmagus," Kim ticked them off her fingers. "And…"

"Fancy dress parties?" suggested Peter.

"I think it's something to do with disguises." said James.

"Good enough." said Lily. "Now I've just got to make up a concluding statement…" The bell rung. Lily swore again.

"C'mon, Transfiguration, then." said Kim, patting Lily's head sympathetically.

"McGonagall's gunna kill me." she muttered, getting to her feet and shoving the already-crinkly parchment in her bag.

"Hey, at least it's Friday. And the Easer holidays next week," said Kim. "Although I suppose we'll get homework then, as well…"

"I guess," said Lily. She followed the others to the Transfiguration classroom.

"Right, wands out, pick a partner, we're having another practical lesson today. Essay on my desk, Mr Lupin." Professor McGonagall instructed crisply. "In continuation on human transfiguration, we're going to begin to transfigure some of our partner's facial features."

Sirius let out an evil laugh and issued a 'Snivelly'.

"Please turn to the person next to you." McGonagall continued. Sirius looked disappointed. "You may use any spell we have learnt so far. All faces will be returned to their normal state at the end of the lesson."

Lily turned to Kim. "Do I really trust you with my face?" Kim joked.

"What do you want me to do to it?" asked Lily. Down the table there was a muffled cry. Lily turned to see Remus' hair, especially his eyebrows, growing exceedingly fast, so that his hair had reached his waist and his eyebrows had already reached his mouth.

"Oops." said Peter sheepishly.

"Hey, Moony," said James. "You look almost as hairy as a werewolf!" He, Sirius and Peter laughed. Lily chuckled, and assumed Remus would be looking annoyed if they could possibly see his face.

"OK, what is _with-_" Kim stopped half-yelling as McGonagall came around and charmed Remus' uncontrollable hair back to normal.

"Sorry, what?" Lily asked.

"What is _with _you guys and werewolves?" she hissed, watching McGonagall's retreating back. The Marauders exchanged glances.

"odeng ooyung antwang ooting eltang erhung?" James asked Remus.

"Ilyleng owsnung." Remus shrugged. "ewong anceng rusting emthong."

"Ing inkthang ooyung oodshang." said Peter.

"Kong." nodded Remus.

"_Muffliato!_" muttered Sirius, casting the spell that filled surrounding people's ears with a buzz.

"What the?" Kim asked Lily. Lily shrugged.

"Natible Language." said Remus.

"What Moony means to say," said Sirius with a grin. "Is that his furry little problem isn't a steroid-fed rabbit."

"Really?" asked Kim sarcastically. And then her eyes widened. "Moony. Oh my-"

"Yep." said James.

"Pretty much." agreed Sirius.

"Since when?" asked Kim.

"I was bitten by Greyback," said Remus. "Before I came to Hogwarts."

"That's so… oh my… can't believe… doesn't it hurt?"

"I'm used to it." Remus shrugged.

"That was why you asked about the blue moon!" Kim turned to face Lily, her mouth hanging open. Lily could see that the millions of things she had questioned were finally making sense. She'd felt the same thing when she'd found out about Remus' 'furry little problem' over the Christmas break.

"I still don't get Padfoot and Prongs and whatever." said Kim.

"Ah…" said James. He looked over the top of some heads to make sure that McGonagall was preoccupied.

"Me and James and Peter… we're unregistered animagi." explained Sirius. Kim's jaw dropped again, having just found it's way shut. "We go to the Shrieking Shack – Moony is what makes all those noises, by the way – with Remus every full moon."

"Are you insane?"

"Nope, they're Marauders." said Lily. "But close enough."

"I suppose I always knew you must have done _something _majorly illegal." said Kim, some of the shock appearing to have worn off. "So what are you all?"

"Stag." said James proudly.

"Dog." said Sirius happily.

"Rat." muttered Peter, turning slightly red. Lily and Kim caught each other's eye, and turned away to stop themselves from laughing.

----------

"Oh, gross…" Kim muttered, reading a book entitled _Werewolves: Facts and Fiction._

"Do I want to know?" inquired Lily from her bed.

"I doubt it, unless you'd find it interesting that on b-"

"Hey, Lily, can you ask James if there's Quidditch practise tomorrow night?" asked Tara. "He hasn't said anything about it yet." Lily pulled her hairbrush through her hair and turned around.

"What, sorry?" she asked. Tara repeated the question.

"Yeah, sure." Lily replied. "I was about to go down to the Common Room, anyway. You coming, Kim?"

"After I finish this chapter."

"OK."

"Thanks!" Tara called after her, as Lily left the dormitory. Upon reaching the staircase she noticed that the stairs had melted away and left a sort of a slide. With a giggle she slid down.

"Who's been trying to get up to the girls' dormitories?" she asked. A fourth year boy flushed. Lily bit her lip, reminded startlingly of James, and joined the circle of armchairs that were the Marauders' favourites.

"Tara wants to know if Quidditch practise is on tomorrow night." she said. Realising there were no remaining chairs, she took a seat on the floor next to Remus.

"Nope." said James, looking up briefly from the newspaper he was reading. "Wormtail's birthday."

"What's that got to do with Quidditch not being on?" asked Lily.

"Because we'll all be too blind drunk to tell one end of a broomstick from the other." Remus explained simply.

"Of course." said Lily. "I'm not even going to ask where you're planning to get alcohol from, if you can't get to Hogsmeade."

"Lily, Lily, Lily." Sirius tutted, shaking his head. "Who said we _weren't_ going to Hogsmeade?"

"Well, I didn't think you'd be able to get out of the castle past six." she replied with a shrug. "Even there was a way to get out of the Shrieking Shack, I don't think you'd be allowed on the grounds that late to get to the secret passage with the war and everything…"

But Lily took one look at the smirks the Marauders were exchanging and she knew that whatever she was saying was probably contradicting their evil plans. In any rate, there was no point in trying to work out whatever it was they were thinking.

"I wouldn't be so sure." said James. He ruffled his copy of the _Prophet_ and his eyes flicked back to it.

"Whyare you reading the newspaper, by the way?" Sirius asked lazily.

"Checking for any info about the Diagon Alley attack." said James. "But there's nothing… not even in the Deaths."

"I s'pose we'll find out if anything happened soon enough." said Peter quietly.

**A/N:** Not the best chapter, I know. And, like, half of it was dialogue. But I reeeeeaally wanted to post a chapter before I go on my holiday. And I haven't had time to work on this at night, like I usually do, because we've got someone staying at our house and my sister is sleeping in my room so I can't go on my computer past eight o'clock at night and… you really don't care, do you?


	23. Alcohol Makes Death 10 Times Funnier

**A/N:** I'm ba-ack! Back from having kids who're, like, 5 years younger than me trying to convince me to go on the fastest roller coaster in the Southern Hemisphere with them! Yay! Ooookay… well I'm going to let out who it was that died in the Attack this time. Coz it's kind of obvious that SOMEONE died, isn't it? Well, I'm going let Lily/Kim/Marauders find out about the person/s I was planning to kill when I first put the article there. But I think I've got an idea of yet another person to kill. Hee hee, this is fun. Now I know how JKR feels. Well… no, not really. Yay - Luna32, Raekitty**13** (sorry!), Saber12, yoongfrow-harlz-, frenchfriesrule, zipppyfox, writerchick13 and weblinggirl05… you guys rock.

**Disclaimer: **JKR's books are published. You can see them in bookstores and pay money to read them. They are written so she can make a profit and a living. My stories are posted on Anyone, including grubby old men, can read them for free. And they are written for my own amusement.

"I s'pose we'll find out if anything happened soon enough." said Peter quietly.

James nodded in agreement. He'd almost begun to relax about the Attack. After all, if anyone known to any of them had gotten hurt, they would know by now, right? Especially family members. The teachers would have told them about family members. Either that, or they would have been sent an owl from the Ministry or something. James leant backwards into his armchair. He had a calmed feeling about him. Somehow, he thought everything was going to be alright. They would know by now…

Suddenly a thought hit him, causing him to sit upright so fast that the newspaper on his lap went flying. Half of it landed in the fire and caught alight. The flame crept up the parchment. Lily shrieked, brought her wand out of her pocket, and cast a non-verbal _Aguamenti_ spell so that water shot out of the tip and put it out. Sirius and Peter laughed, but Remus said;

"What's up, Prongs?"

"That letter," James spluttered. "Padfoot, what did it say?"

"What the hell are you on about?" was Sirius' reply.

"That letter that you got at breakfast this morning."

"And you didn't read it because you had to finish your essay." Remus supplied, moving up slightly from his slouched posture.

"Oh," said Sirius with an expression of dawning comprehension. "_That_ letter. I haven't read it yet." He brought the parchment envelope out of his pocket. "It looks boring."

"Read it, you dimwit! It could be important!" James yelled. Lily, Sirius, Remus and Peter stared at him as he panted, with expressions that suggested they thought he'd gone mad. Kim joined the circle, giggling.

"The girls' staircase is a slide." She said. "Some fourth year tried to get up and…" she noticed the looks on everyone's faces. "Oookay… what's going on?"

"James' gone mad." said Sirius. James swore.

"I haven't gone bloody mad! Look, just open the freaking letter!"

"OK, OK. Chill, already." Sirius shrugged and ripped open the official-looking envelope.

"What is it?" asked Kim.

"Mr. Sirius Black… Letter to inform you… Yada, yada, yada… Huh." Sirius paused, staring at the letter thoughtfully.

"What's up?" Lily inquired.

"My Dad."

"What about him?"

"He's dead, apparently. Got killed in the Diagon Alley Attack."

_I knew it!_ Thought James triumphantly. And then he furrowed his brow in thought. He could have slapped himself. Sirius' Dad was dead!

"By who?" asked Remus. Sirius' eyes flicked through the letter.

"They don't know. But he was hit by a curse that sent him flying through a shop window, and his head hit something hard." He replied. "It must've been an accident or something. I don't see why they'd kill my Dad; he's on You-Know-Who's side. My cousin's are Death Eaters and everything. He probably would've forced me to join, too, if I hadn't… uh, yeah."

Everyone stared at Sirius. James studied his best mate's face carefully. He couldn't see any sign of sadness. No happiness, though. In fact, the only thing James _could_ see there was deep thought. But he had to feel _something_, even if he _did_ loathe his parents.

"Are you… OK?" Kim murmured finally.

"Who, me?" asked Sirius with a small air or surprise. "Yeah, I'm fine! The idiot had it coming to him."

----------

An extra loud snore of Peter's woke James up that night. He sleepily rolled over, and was about to drift back to sleep when he saw that Sirius was still awake. He was lying in bed, his arms folded behind his head. He still had that thoughtful look on his face.

James was contemplating revealing that he was awake to him, when Sirius said;

"I can see your eyes are open, you know, Prongs."

"Oh," said James. He opened his mouth to say something more, but reconsidered.

"I know I'm dazzlingly hot, but I prefer to get stared at by girls, if you don't mind." said Sirius. Well, at least he was talking normally.

"Ha ha." said James sardonically. Sirius grinned over at him. There was a silence.

"So… what's up?" asked James, although he knew perfectly well what had kept Sirius awake for so long.

"Oh, I just can't get to sleep. You know how it is. I think it might be a side-effect from becoming an animagus or something."

"Padfoot, we've been animagi for _two years._"

Sirius didn't reply to this. James shrugged, and rolled back over in an attempt to get to sleep once more. They both listened to Peter snoring for another minute or two, until Sirius muttered, barely audibly;

"He's the guy who raised me, isn't he? I've got to feel _something._"

James didn't know whether Sirius was talking to him or to himself. He pretended he was still asleep.

----------

"Happy Birthday, Wormtail!" said James, thrusting a large, brightly wrapped gift into his friend's arms. Peter picked it up tentatively, as though afraid it might explode at any second.

"It's not going to hurt you, I promise," said Remus. "Although it might, well… _startle_… you a bit."

"It's from all of us." added Sirius. "Ruddy expensive, too."

"Although James _did_ pay for most of it, with his parents money." said Remus.

"Yeah… it's a good thing my parents didn't know what we were buying, though." muttered James.

Peter unwrapped the present. When he saw the assortment of things it contained he looked up at his three friends, his face a mixture of disgust and disbelief. James, Sirius and Remus burst into laughter at the sight.

"Oh my God, guys. That's just… _disgusting!_" said Peter finally. "Where'd… how'd… whose idea was it?"

"Padfoot's." said James and Remus in unison. Peter raised his eyebrows at Sirius.

"Hey, I just figured you might need 'em sometime soon." explained Sirius, shaking with suppressed laughter.

"What made you think I'd need anything like… like _this?_" Peter held up the largest item inclosed in his gift.

"You're a Marauder," gasped James between laughs, looking at Peter's face as he held the object. "You need one at least once in your life."

"Unless you're Moony." said Sirius. Remus smiled in a sarcastic kind of a way.

"I'm just glad I haven't eaten since lunch." said Peter. The other three laughed once again. James' stomach was beginning to hurt from it.

"So, young Peter." said Sirius with an air of wisdom. "Are you still planning to get drunk with us tonight, or do you want to go try your presents out?"

Peter stared at him as though he thought that Sirius had been dropped on the head as a child.

"I thought so." said Sirius. James brought yet another bag out from under his bed.

"I smuggled this through the one-eyed witch passageway earlier today." He said. "Bought it from the Hogs Head. Hey, have you ever noticed how much the barman there looks like Dumbledore?"

"Yeah, I thought he did, too." agreed Remus. "Maybe he's his brother or something."

"Who cares?" asked Sirius. "Let's drink!"

James tipped the bag upside down. Twenty large, glass bottles fell onto Peter's bed. Fifteen of them were labelled _Firewhisky_ and the other two were labelled _Gillywater._

"Now _this_ present I like," said Peter enthusiastically. The Marauders grabbed a bottle each.

"To Wormtail!" said Remus, raising his bottle.

"To Maraudership!" said James, also raising his bottle.

"To Firewhisky!" added Peter.

"To Disgusting Birthday Presents!" shouted Sirius.

An hour later, the Marauders sat around their dormitory. Twelve empty bottles now lay on the floor. Another was in each of their hands.

"Ay, Prongsie?" slurred Sirius. "This bottle… 's it half-empty or 'alf-full?"

"Dunno, mate." James replied, attempting to focus his eyes on the bottle.

"You know teachers?" said Remus, grinning dopily. "They're so annoying. They just… suck. They're always telling you what to do. And homework! This is what I think of homework!" With that Remus uncharacteristically spat on the ground.

"Why're you purple?" muttered Peter to himself, hiccuping. "Because I'm in the mood!" He chuckled.

"Hey, Moony." said James, his head spinning. "There are two of you! Ooooh…"

"Just like the good old days." said Remus. He attempted to roll his eyes, but his head rolled with them. He fell off of his bed with a loud thud. James, Sirius and Peter all laughed loudly.

"'Tis nothing _like_ the ol' days." said Sirius. "In th' old days James hadn't decided to _change_ for Lily. An' she didn't even want him to change!" Sirius snorted. "Plus, in the old days, Prongs 'n me could hook up with random girls when we got drunk."

"'Nd guys." added Remus, chuckling hysterically.

"Shuddup, that was just one time!" exclaimed Sirius, turning red despite the amount of Firewhisky he'd consumed. "And he _looked_ like a dude."

"_We _can still hook up with randoms." said Peter, flinging his arm around Remus' neck.

"You said you didn't wanna test ya present out!" said Sirius, rolling around on the floor with drunk hilarity. No one, not even Dumbledore James suspected, would expect that this drunken idiot had found out he'd lost one of his parents the day before. But then again, Sirius hated his parentage.And alcohol could make even death seem ten times funnier.

"Veeeeeery" _hiccup _"funny." slurred Peter sarcastically.

"'N you guys can still hook up wiv Lily and Kiiiiiiiimberly…" Remus pointed out, falling to the floor with yet another loud thud.

"Oh yeah…" said Sirius, still on the floor. He grinned suddenly, exchanging glances with James. They both jumped to their feet.

"Well… you guys have fun hooking up with random girls…" said Sirius.

"…Or each other." said James and thumped Peter on the back. "Happy Birthday, Wormy!"

"I don't think Lily and Kim'll-" said Remus, but his face suddenly brightened. "Have you ever noticed that the ceiling's reeeeed? Like craaaaanberries!"

"Er… bye." said Sirius as he walked towards the door. " Bye. Er… Later. Bye-bye."

"Adi-" _hiccup_ "-os!" said Peter.

"See yer later!" called James, stumbling from the room. He knew that, if he was in luck, he wouldn't be seeing his mates until the morning. At least.

_On second thoughts…_ Thought James, and found his way back into the room. He grabbed a last bottle of Firewhisky off of the bed and walked back out.

**A/N:** Mwehehehe! Well, some reviewers asked me to do something sorta like that, so I obliged. And it was fun… although a little weird. I'm sure it came out more than a _little_ weird, too. Concerning Sirius' dad… well, there's more coming on that matter, just so you know.

…

Oh, what do you think Peter's present could've been? Cookies for whoever can guess it!


	24. Finally, The Last Week of Term!

**A/N:** Hahaha. For anyone who mentioned it, you're right. James was _not_ in luck. He was a little too hopeful, and more than a little too drunk. Rejected, James and Sirius returned to their dormitory and guzzled the remainder of the alcohol. Lol! Thankyou to those who commented – webling-girl05, frenchfriesrule, indescribablyBee, Saber12, Luna32, Raekitty13, ourlittlesecret7, writerchick13, zipppyfox, youngfrow-harlz- and PremzaWitchOfWeirdos. Also, Peter's present. No one was able to work it out… except maybe for those who didn't review or said they didn't want to type it… but I found myself rolling around on the floor with some of the ideas. Thanks for that :D.

**Disclaimer:** Duh.

The Marauders trooped down the stairs looking extremely sick the next morning, at about one in the afternoon. Kim nudged Lily in the ribs, grinning evilly. Lily looked up at where Kim was pointing. The two girls exchanged evil grins. Kim raised her eyebrows at Lily in a questioning manner, and Lily nodded.

"Nice to see you guys up!" Lily called as soon as the boys were within a few paces of them. Her voice was cheery and high-pitched, and she was waving enthusiastically. All four boys clutched their heads, groaning in agony.

"Could you keep it down?" asked Sirius, wincing his faintly bloodshot eyes in pain.

"Huh?" Kim half-yelled. "Keep what down?"

"Stop with the yelling!" muttered Peter.

"What? Sorry! I didn't hear you!" asked Lily, a lot louder than was necessary. The Marauders exchanged glances, as they realised what was going on.

"That's just cruel." James accused her. Lily shrugged.

"That's what we're here for." grinned Kim, patting Sirius on the head, hard. Sirius swore loudly and obscenely. Kim just laughed.

"You don't need to hurt me and Peter!" Remus pointed out, clearly seeing the logic even through his hangover. "_We_ didn't do anything! It was all Padfoot and Prongs!"

"Hmm…" Lily considered it. "True."

"OK, OK. We get it." said James. "We were drunk. Sorry, already."

"Yeah, sorry." agreed Sirius.

"That's alright," said Lily.

"But you guys aren't allowed any more alcohol until you're out of Hogwarts. At least." Kim nodded.

"Fair enough." said Sirius. "I haven't had a hangover this bad since Prongs' birthday."

"Well… that's only another term," noted James. "OK. Are we forgiven?"

"I guess." said Lily with a shrug.

----------

The days dragged on slowly, with the light of the Easter holidays at the end of the tunnel. ("Finally, the last week of term!" Sirius remarked.) Teachers were piling homework onto them, as though afraid they'd forget everything they'd learned so far during the short break.

"Moony," Sirius had said on Monday afternoon, after Flitwick had set them an annoyingly long essay to do over the holidays. "If you ever become Minister for Magic, you have to ban homework."

"I doubt _that_ will ever happen." Remus replied quietly. "Who'd want a werewolf as Minister?"

"Me." said James. "Then you could ban homework."

"But we wouldn't even be in school anymore," Kim put in.

"Yeah, but my son wouldn't have to do any." retorted James.

"Or daughter." added Lily.

"Or daughter." James agreed.

"Talking of kids already?" Sirius exclaimed. "It's not even the end of second term!"

Lily and James had both sulked in 'dignified' silence.

On Tuesday they had missed out on Potions, as Slughorn had, according to rumours, choked on some crystallised pineapple and was still recovering. Lily didn't believe it, although she was ready to accept the fact that it probably had something to do with crystallised pineapple. Slughorn was obsessed with the stuff.

Because of the lack of Potions, the students in his class had been given free period. Whilst the Marauders used it to laze around the lake, trying to spot the giant squid, Lily and Kim were smart enough to go to the library and do some of their homework.

There were distractions of sorts there, however. Regulus, Sirius' little brother, was there; looking up some History of Magic dates. Lily watched him as he did it, wondering how he had been affected by his father's death. But he had either gotten over it, wasn't thinking about it or was very skilled at hiding his feelings, because he looked just as smug as usual. Lily shrugged and went back to her own homework.

On Wednesday, Lily received an owl from home at breakfast. Thankfully, no mail landed in her breakfast this time. It had read the following.

_Dearest Lily,_

_We're very glad that you're enjoying yourself at school. Hopefully your teachers aren't giving you too much homework because of these NEWTs. Dad was wondering what it stood for – he found it quite amusing that, like your OWLs, they were named after an animal._

_James Potter, Lily? The Pothead who 'makes your life hell'? Well, I must say, that came as a bit of a shock, although I'm quite delighted. Dad's a little wary of him because of what you've said in the past, but I know you're very responsible. Still, your Dad tells me that I must remind you to focus on your studies, no matter whom you are dating._

_Oh! Your sister has gotten engaged! Isn't that wonderful? To Vernon Dursley, obviously. We're so pleased for her. Lily, I know you and Vernon haven't always gotten on, but please, please try to refrain from throwing food at him at the wedding. Again. Petunia hasn't forgotten the last time you two saw each other, and neither have I. She agreed to invite James to the wedding, as well. I would love to finally meet him._

_We enclosed ten galleons that we exchanged at Diagon Alley. Wish Kim a Happy Birthday from us. Dad seemed to think her birthday was in October, like yours, for some reason. Oh, well._

_I'd best go and make your Dad and sister some dinner. Have a good Easter holiday. I'll send some eggs next week._

_All my love,_

_Mum. _

_XOXO_

Lily smiled guiltily at her parents' gullibility, and then showed it to James. He read the part about meeting Lily's mother and groaned. Remus, Sirius and Peter looked over their shoulders and chuckled sympathetically. Kim snorted.

"James!" she'd whispered indignantly, although finding his expression hilarious.

"What? I-" At that moment, luckily for James, the bell had rung.

"Saved by the bell." Lily and James both muttered.

On Thursday, Sirius and James had had Quidditch practise. The Grand Final wasn't very far into the next term, and the whole team was pumped about it. It was, once again, to be a Gryffindor vs. Slytherin Grand Final. Even Lily, who had never seen what boys saw in Quidditch, was excited about the outcome of the match. Lily and Remus were having an in depth discussion about Runes when James and Sirius came back to the Common Room, covered in mud and looking very, very angry.

"Wow. _Someone_ woke up on the wrong side of the bed." said Peter.

"I _hate_ Slytherin." James muttered viciously.

"Really?" asked Remus sarcastically. "I had no idea!"

James glared at him.

"They ambushed our practise." explained Sirius, looking both angry and tired.

"Ambushed?" asked Lily exasperatedly. _Well,_ she thought, _I knew the teams were serious about Quidditch, but not _that_ much!_

"The idiots came onto the field and distracted us!" exclaimed James. "And they jinxed Chris' broom! Now he's in the Hospital Wing with a broken wrist!"

"I got them back, though… sort of." said Sirius, smirking. "Whacked a bludger at them and broke Abbot's nose."

"Sirius!" Kim scolded. Although the impression she was attempting was ruined by the fact that she was grinning from ear to ear.

None too soon, Friday came. Lily had Herbology last where, of course, they did no practical work at all. It was all note-taking. It wasn't too bad though. Before sixth year, they had had History of Magic last period on a Friday, and _that_ had been absolute torture. Lily watched Remus' watch tick as his left arm dangled down on the side of the table.

_Twenty minutes… ten minutes… five minutes… still five minutes… I swear, his clock's stopped!_

Finally, _finally_ the bell rang. A sigh of relief filled the classroom. Sure, they had more homework than they had ever received on a holiday. But it was a holiday, nonetheless. As Lily left the classroom, her head was light with happiness. They hadn't even gotten any homework from Herbology! That just left Charms, Arithmancy, Transfiguration, Potions and Defence Against the Dark Arts.

"No homework from Herbology!" Kim echoed Lily's thoughts.

"Yeah," agreed Lily. "I think that means we don't have to start any essays tonight."

"Oh, wait a minute, seventh years!" the Professor called. "I forgot! Complete the questions on page 537 please!"

The classroom filled with an outbreak of grumbling and cursing.

"Damn." said Lily.

"Let's get back to the Common Room." said Kim glumly. "We've got to get started on our homework."

**A/N:** Gaaah! Least eventful chapter ever! But… I didn't really have much else to write. And I thought the Marauders/Kim/Lily deserved a bit of a break. But mainly because I couldn't think of anything else to write. Do you know what this means, having reached the holidays? It means this fic's half over! Omg! Wait, what are you still reading this for? Review!


	25. Easter, And Way Too Much Chocolate

**A/N:** Well, I haven't updated in a while, sorry! I've been really, really busy – organising both my sister and friend's birthdays, homework, rewriting one of my oneshots, writing insane scripts, eating, creating blogs, trying to start a Save The Chickens fund, etcetera. SAVE THE POOR, GENETICALLY MODIFIED CHICKENS! Uh… ahem.

**Disclaimer:** The day Remus gets over his chocolate obsession and James gets over his Lily obsession is the day I become JKR.

"Happy Easter!" called James, his mouth full of chocolate. Bright, shiny, empty wrappers were littered around him on the table, and there were many more wrappers filled with chocolate eggs, too.

"How much chocolate do you _have_?" asked Lily, rubbing her eyes in case she was still part asleep.

"Sometimes it rocks to have an unnecessarily large extended family." said James, shrugging amidst his pile of about a hundred eggs.

"Is that all you're eating for breakfast?" asked Remus from over at his plate of bacon and eggs, looking sadly at the amount of chocolate he wasn't able to eat himself.

"Yep." said James.

"That's disgusting!" said Kim, shaking her head and sitting down at the Gryffindor table.

"Hey, I'd do the same thing," said Sirius. "I just don't have enough chocolate."

"You have heaps!" said Lily, pointing at his pile of thirty-something Easter eggs.

"What, them?" asked Sirius. "That's just from Prongs' Mum! Moony and Wormtail have the same."

"I already ate all mine," added Remus, sighing.

Lily shook her head with amusement. She sat down next to James (with difficulty, thanks to the masses of chocolate) and helped herself to some breakfast.

"I don't get it." said Kim. She took a mouthful of toast, swallowed, and went on; "How is it they can eat so much chocolate, but-"

"Not weigh three-thousand pounds?" Lily finished the sentence for her. "Must be all the Quidditch. I don't know how they manage it all, the food, the Quidditch, the detentions, the homework…"

"We just don't do the homework." said Remus, having apparently been eavesdropping. "Still, I think we're gunna have to do _some_ these holidays."

"I don't think it can be classified as a holiday." grumbled Kim.

"Too right." Lily agreed. She obviously didn't enjoy doing homework, but she was beginning to see why the teachers gave them so much of it. It was only the fact that the NEWTs look far closer from this side of the end of term. A couple of months – it wasn't enough time! They still had so much more to do, which meant more homework to do, which meant more to learn, which meant yet more homework. It was a never-ending, exhausting cycle.

"What're we going to do today?" asked Peter.

"Look for Easter bunnies for Moony to eat next month!" sniggered Sirius. Remus kicked him in the shin, causing him to howl in pain and drop to the floor.

"You OK, mate?" asked James thickly, looking underneath the table.

"Ow. Not really." said Sirius, heaving himself back onto his chair and glaring at Remus, who was chuckling silently.

"We could go try and touch the trunk of the Whomping Willow." suggested Kim. "That's something no-one's done in a long time."

"That's because Davey Gudgeon nearly lost an eye, remember?" asked Remus. "We'll get into loads of trouble, and my arm's still sore since my last detention."

"I saw enough of the Whomping Willow over Christmas to last me a lifetime." added Lily darkly. James looked sheepish.

Just then, an owl burdened with yet another colourful package swooped down next to them.

"Finally!" said Kim. "Dad said he'd send me some Eggs." She put the moderately-sized packet of chocolate in her bag. Remus' eyes followed it longingly.

"We could go to try and entice the Giant Squid out of the lake again." said Peter.

"Mmkay." said James. "Hopefully we can actually _see_ him this time."

"Or her." said Lily. Sirius snorted.

"Do Giant Squids even _have_ genders?"

And so it was that the party of six made their way down to the beech tree by the lake, carrying books (maybe they could get some of the easier homework done) and, for some reason known only to the Marauders, a bag full of cranberries. Lily decided she didn't really want to know the reason for the cranberries, but doubtless she'd find out.

"Here, Squiddy, Squiddy, Squiddy!" Sirius sang, calling out on the water's edge. Lily and Kim exchanged glances.

"What _is_ your fascination with the Giant Squid?" asked Lily.

"It's just so cool!" said James, flopping down underneath the shade of the tree, and watching Sirius with amusement as he attempted to conjure up a fish for 'bait' ("I don't think squids eat fish," said Remus) and had a bird of some sort swoop down and pick it from his fingers. Cursing, Sirius mended the small cut the bird had made with it's beak and returned to everyone else.

"I give up." He said, sighing in a defeated manner.

"You suck." said Kim. Sirius opened his mouth to speak, and Kim shot him a warning glance. Sirius began to laugh, but Kim kicked him in the shin Remus hadn't bruised earlier.

"Ow! Why do people keep kicking me in the shin?"

"Because you're being an ass." explained Remus.

"Oh, right." Sirius shrugged and stuffed a handful of the cranberries into his mouth.

"What's with the cranberries?" asked Lily.

"They make us go high." shrugged Peter.

"_Cranberries?_"

"Yeah, well we're not allowed to have anymore alcohol 'till past July!"

"I s'pose."

James took _Which Broomstick?_ Out of his bag and began to read it. Lily shook her head, James had a perfectly good broom, why would he want another one? Sirius took a random ball out of his pocket, and amused himself by throwing it above his head and catching it, over and over again. Peter retrieved some homework, and Lily followed his example. Remus began to doodle on a piece of parchment he found in his pocket. Kim took to talking with anyone who would listen.

"Which year was Grindelwald defeated?" asked Peter.

"1945." said Kim immediately.

"How'd you know that?" asked Sirius.

"It's on the back of this Chocolate Frog card." said Kim, holding out the card to show him.

"You have _chocolate?_" asked Remus, sitting straight up.

"Hey, wasn't 1945 the year World War II ended?" giggled Lily. "Was Grindelwald Hitler?"

"Hitler?" asked James Lily felt like saying 'Duuuuh!' Sure, James was a pureblood, but to not know about Hitler?

"You know, Adolf Hitler? The-"

"All that chocolate! Alone! Upstairs!" Remus mourned. "Someone will steal it!"

"Moony, Moony, Moony." Sirius shook his head. "Are you going to ever get over this chocolate obsession?"

"Let's put it this way." said Remus. "When you and Prongs get over your obsessions with Lily and Kim, then I'll quit obsessing with chocolate."

Four faces flushed bright pink. Remus smirked.

"Yeah, well it's not like _you_ don't have an obsession with anyone!" said Peter. Remus' eyes looked momentarily sad.

"No, I don't." he said shortly yet mournfully, pushing some hair out of his eyes. No one said anything for awhile. Lily's mind was processing it. That look was the one Remus only wore when he was thinking bad things about himself being a werewolf. But what did that have to do with, well, anything?

"Oooh, awkward pause." said James, grinning. "Don't be so idiotic, Moony. Or, at least, try not to." Remus laughed and the tension was broken. Lily felt a flash of warm love towards the Head Boy.

Lily gave up on the homework, and watched with amusement as Sirius tried to steal Kim's chocolate without her noticing. Kim _did _notice, and slapped his hand away. James chuckled.

"You two look like an old married couple!" he teased.

"Please, have you ever seen you and Lily?" asked Kim.

"What is this, tease people about their current relationship day?" Sirius raised his arms in exasperation.

"We can tease you about your _past_ relationships, if you like." said Peter.

"Um, I'd prefer not." muttered Sirius. Kim looked suspicious. Remus stood up.

"Where're you going?" asked Lily.

"Bathroom." said Remus quickly. He took off towards the castle. _Someone needs to go! _Thought Lily, stifling a laugh behind her hand.

However, half-an-hour later, Remus had still not returned.

"Where is he?" asked Lily.

"You don't think he ran into trouble with Slytherins or anything?" asked Peter.

"Maybe he got lost on the way to the toilets." joked Sirius.

"I don't think it's good, whatever it is." said James.

"He might've been murdered by Pringle." said Kim. Lily shuddered, not wanting to think of the ways Pringle would be able to murder a student.

"Maybe we should go check if he's OK." said James, jumping to his feet. Lily followed, grabbing her bag, and they strode up to the castle. Kim, Sirius and Peter were a few paces behind them.

They stepped into the Entrance Hall, and couldn't see him there. Sirius ran to check in the boys toilets, and announced that he wasn't there. Worried, the group decided to check the Common Room. The boys split up to search the large room, but Lily decided to ask someone.

"Hey, Alice!" Lily called to Alice, who was passing by with. "You haven't seen Remus, have you?"

"Um, yeah, he was here about twenty minutes ago." said Alice.

"I think I saw him go up the boys staircase." Tara piped up from behind Alice.

"OK, thanks." said Lily.

"Check your dormitory!" Kim called to James, Sirius and Peter. James shrugged and ran up the staircase. Lily and Kim joined Sirius and Peter, waiting. And then James' yell floated down the stairs.

"Moony! What the hell are you doing?"

Lily, Sirius, Peter and Kim all exchanged glances, and then they were running up the stairs, fighting to get to the dormitory first.

"What's he doing?" asked Peter.

"Maybe he's got a girl up there." sniggered Sirius.

"Do we really want to find out?" asked Lily, wondering if what they were going to find up there was appropriate for human eyes to see.

"Hey! That's _mine!_" came James' voice.

They finally reached the seventh years' dormitory, and saw Remus and James each pulling one end of a large… thing.

"Give – it – here!" James ordered, panting with the effort of attempting to .

"OK, OK. Fine. " Remus laughed , letting go of the egg. James hugged the colourful, circular chocolate to his chest.

"What the bloody hell is going on here?" asked Sirius from over Lily's shoulder.

"I thought you ate all your chocolate!" said Peter to Remus, gesturing at the massive pile of eggs sitting on what Lily guessed must have been Remus' bed.

"He did!" exclaimed James, half-amused, half-angry. "He stole all ours!"

"That's low, Moony." said Sirius, snorting.

"_Really_ low." said Kim.

"Hey, that's my singing egg!" said Peter, pointing at a gold egg that had printed in curly font on the wrapper; _IT SINGS WITH EVERY BITE!_

"You shouldn't have told me that you'd left your chocolate upstairs! I couldn't help it! It was so easy!"

"Well," said Lily. "Of all of you, I thought Remus was the one with self control."

"He only looses control under two conditions," said Sirius.

"One – that chocolate is involved." James put in.

"And two – that it's full moon." said Sirius.

"If only you had a third shin to kick." said Remus, shaking his head and stepping on Sirius' foot instead.

**A/N:** Ooookay, this chapter basically had all sorts of random things I'm personally obsessed with in it, including Grindelwald being Hitler, Remus being in love with chocolate, cranberries and the Giant Squid. Oh, and Sirius getting kicked in the shins. :D But you have to admit, Remus does come across as being a _little_ obsessed with chocolate. Like – "Have some chocolate, Harry, and all your worries will disappear!" But, yeah, it's not like that's a bad thing!


	26. A Not So Stupid Stupid Thing

**A/N:** Well, here I am again, posting another chapter just for reviews. Nah, joking. I do love reviews, though, so molti grazie per mio critico letterario, yoongfrow-harlz-, HaloAngel, webling-girl05, indescribablyBee, writerchick13, Raekitty13, zippyfox, Luna32 (I can't, sorry! You'll find out why. More chocolate, though… ;)) and PremzaWitchOfWeirdos.

**Disclaimer:** Professional authors don't have to waste their time thinking up disclaimers.

Lily woke up, once again, with a chill on Wednesday morning. She was always waking up cold nowadays, and had no idea why. It should have been getting warmer, as it was coming into spring. As it was, it was getting colder. Lily sighed, and pulled some warm clothes on.

She checked the time. Eleven o'clock. Had she really slept that late? She glanced to the bed next to hers – even Kim was up! She pulled a brush through her hair and walked down to the Common Room.

It took awhile to find the Marauders, however, when she did, she noticed that they were with Kim, circling tightly around something and talking in voices that were somewhat hushed. Curious, Lily walked up to them quietly, trying to work out what they were talking about. She wondered if it was anything to do with Remus being a werewolf, or the other three being animagi. She couldn't see whatever it was that they were all looking at.

"…_did_ take ages," Sirius was saying. "A few years, I think?"

"Yeah," Peter agreed.

"I don't get it, why aren't–" Kim's head flicked up, and she saw Lily standing there. "Oh! Morning, Lily!" she said in a tone that was obviously intended as a warning for the Marauders. Remus whispered something.

"What's going on?" asked Lily slowly.

"Lily! You slept in!" said James enthusiastically. Lily glared piercingly.

"What were you all looking at?"

"Homework." said Kim.

"Quidditch tactics." said James, a fraction of a second afterwards. They exchanged glances, and shrugged.

"We've always really thought of Quidditch as homework." said Sirius sheepishly. Lily felt hurt and annoyed. What was it that they could show Kim but not her?

"So… what's your plan for the Grand Final, then?" she asked in a forced, cheery tone, wondering if they'd believe she'd bought it.

James bit his lip, but didn't say anything. He looked at Sirius in a questioning way. Sirius half shrugged, half shook his head. James then glanced at Remus and then Peter, who did the same thing.

"They're planning on a half-team defence, or something." said Kim quietly.

"Well, I don't know what that means." Lily tried to get herself to laugh, failed, and continued. "It doesn't matter. I'll see in a week or two, I suppose."

James looked at her with concern. He opened his mouth, and then closed it. He did the same thing two more times, then said;

"Are you hungry? I could always do with another helping of breakfast."

"Uh, I'll wait 'till lunch. Only another hour or so." said Lily. She jumped to her feet. "I think I'll go grab my Herbology book. And then maybe I can go see a teacher, or maybe Hagrid, about that doxy antidote stuff or something, I don't get it."

With that, Lily walked back to the staircase. She took her Herbology book from under the bed, thinking hard, and went to go and see a teacher. James caught up with her on the way to the portrait hole.

"You so didn't believe that Quidditch crap," he said accusingly.

"Of course I didn't, that's worse than 'Sirius was sleepwalking'." said Lily, wishing she could smile.

"OK. So then you're not mad?" asked James. Lily thought. She wasn't sure if she was mad or not. She thought she was, but she didn't _want_ to be mad. Not with James. And it was probably something stupid anyway.

"I don't think so." she replied with a shrug. She gave James a kiss on the cheek. "I'm going to go ask someone about the doxy stuff, alright?"

"OK." said James again, looking nervous. Lily gave a half-nod and climbed out the portrait hole.

_It _is_ something stupid._ She told herself._ Nothing to be this sulky about, you prat._

"Well, _sorry._" She said sarcastically out loud, knowing perfectly well that the first sign of madness was talking to one's self.

----------

Lily ended up asking Madam Pince for help. Ancient and sour as the librarian was, she ended up rattling on about almost everything she knew. Lily walked away, realising that she still knew nothing about the plants that went into doxy antidote. She missed lunch, and was making her way back to the Common Room when she was found by Peeves. Never one to leave _anyone _alone, Peeves sang disturbing songs about her at the top of his sing-song voice.

Finally, Lily returned to Gryffindor Tower, annoyed and bored. As she walked through the portrait hole, the Marauders, who all began yelling at once, greeted her. Baffled, Lily was physically forced to follow them, wondering what on Earth was going on.

"What in-" Lily erupted in a length of profanity, "-is going on here?"

"Well, see," Lily hadn't noticed Kim to her right, but she was there and explaining everything. "James here couldn't stand the thought that _'the Lily Evans'_ was mad at him. So, after much-"

"In short, Prongs is forcing us to tell you what we wouldn't say this morning." said Sirius simply. Lily blinked.

"Not that we didn't want to tell – or show – you." added Remus quickly.

"But we thought you might get mad." said Peter. "'Cause it means loads of sneaking around at night."

"And you _are_ Head Girl." said James.

"_You're_ Head Boy!" Lily protested.

"Yeah, but we all know that was a fluke." said Sirius carelessly.

"And Prongs' never thought much of the rules." said Remus. "Besides, it's not like he'd turn _himself_ in to McGonagall."

"This must be some… thing," said Lily, feeling a little dazed.

"Oh, it is." said Kim. James dug his hand into his pocket and retrieved a piece of parchment. He laid it carefully on the table in front of Lily. Lily stared at it, wondering if it was some kind of retarded joke.

"Would you like to do the honours, Kim?" asked Sirius.

"Huh?" Kim looked apprehensive. "Um… OK. So long as you haven't jinxed it so it'll explode if someone other than a Marauder does it."

"No. Good idea, though." said Peter.

Kim brought her wand out of her pocket and cleared her throat. She laid it on the parchment and said; "I swear… no, that's not right… Oh – I _solemnly_ swear that I am up to no good."

And, all at once, black lines began creeping along the parchment, as though Kim's wand tip had started leaking. They spread out to each corner, and just as Lily was beginning to wonder what on earth was going on, curly, green writing flashed up;

_Messrs Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs _

_Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief-Makers _

_are proud to present_

_THE MARAUDER'S MAP_

"What-" Lily stopped, taking a better look at the lines. It was, as the writing stated, a map. But not just any map. A map of Hogwarts, showing every detail, and some things that Lily had never even seen before. There were even some secret passages, that lead off the map and towards Hogsmeade. Lily noticed the one she herself had been down, that was underneath the Whomping Willow and lead to the Shrieking Shack.

And then the dots caught her eye. She wondered how she hadn't seen them before, now she had noticed them they seemed to jump out at her. They were moving and underneath them were the names of students, teachers, even Peeves. Lily's eyes sought the Gryffindor Common Room and she saw, to the left, six dots, with the words; _Lily Evans, James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew_ and _Kimberly Meadowes._

_Not such a stupid stupid thing!_ Thought Lily. _In fact, it must have taken ages! I knew they were smart, but not this smart!_

"How did you-?"

"Years of sneaking around the castle and hiding from Pringle. We only finished it last month." said Remus before she could finish.

"But…" There were too many questions on Lily's mind for her to say anything. Finally, she picked one. "Why would I get mad at you for this?"

"We thought… I dunno." said James, shrugging. "Sometimes you just get mad for no apparent reason at all."

Lily opened her mouth to defend herself, and then closed it. He was right, really.

"I guess." she sighed. They all gaped at her, open mouthed. Lily grinned. "So… which one of you _really_ did all the spellwork?"

James, Sirius and Peter all instantaneously pointed at Remus.

----------

It was late at night, and Lily's eyes were beginning to itch that familiar itch that meant your body was telling you; _for the love of God, go to bed!_ But she couldn't to bed until she finished this paragraph. That would mean four whole days of the holidays with no homework. It was an offer too tempting to deny, so she pushed sleep out of her mind.

She then realised she had written the same sentence three times over. Vanishing it with her wand, she sighed as the fire slowly died.

"Are you _ever_ going to go to bed?" Lily hadn't known James was still awake. She turned around to look at him, he was sitting on the armchair behind her.

"How long have you been there?" she asked.

"Long enough." James replied.

"I want to get all my homework done, so I can have at least half a week of the holidays free." explained Lily. "Any reason in particular why you're sitting in an armchair staring at me?"

"Yeah, actually." said James, grinning. "I was wondering if you wanted to grab a butterbeer in Hogsmeade together on the weekend. I didn't realise how long it's been since we've had… ah… _privacy._"

Lily stopped herself from blushing. "Blame the teachers." She said. "Them and their bloody homework."

"Is that a yes?"

"Yes."

"Alright, I can finally stop boring myself by staring at you then." James winked at her and got up to go to bed. Lily sighed deeply and returned to her essay, knowing perfectly well there wasn't much point trying to finish it anymore.

**A/N:** So… the girls finally know about the Marauders Map. I wasn't sure about it but… I dunno, really. Um… yeah. Remember; sticks and stones will break my bones but no reviews will cause permanent psychological damage.


	27. Sharp Elbows, Fanged Frisbees and Foam

**A/N: **Greetings! First things first, A few people said they thought that the Marauders wrote the Map in sixth year and it got nicked by Pringle, the caretaker, in sixth year too. Well, they might've written the Map in sixth year – that's my bad – but as far as I know it doesn't ever say when it got taken from them. So there's misfortune coming for our beloved Map. Thanks to my reviewers, PremzaWitchOfWeirdos, Luna32 (I'm sorry! There is a reason, I swear! I'm not that mean!), webling-girl05, Raekitty13, writerchick13, ShiaShadow, angelrider93 and zippyfox.

**Disclaimer: **:P

"Alright, that's enough for today!" yelled James, checking his watch as Douglas swerved and caught the Snitch. It was three o'clock in the afternoon. Normally, he wouldn't schedule Quidditch practise on the holidays, and give the team a break. But the Grand Final was looming closer and closer, and if Slytherin won they'd break their winning streak. It didn't help that it was James' last year on the Gryffindor team. He didn't know why, but for some reason it seemed like there was more pressure because of that. He supposed that if they _did_ loose the final, there would be no 'Oh well, better luck next year.' It was his last chance to show the school what he was made of.

"Um, Prongs?" asked Sirius' voice, waving one of his hands in front of James' face.

"Yeah?" asked James. He spun around on his broom. Sirius shrugged.

"You've been floating there, staring off into space for about a minute." He said. "Just checking you hadn't been victimised by a wrackspurt."

"They don't exist, mate." said James, snorting, as they flew back down to the ground.

"Yes they do!" Sirius protested in a joking tone. "Geez, don't you read the Quibbler?"

"Of course I do." said James sarcastically. "It's so… educational."

They landed and headed toward the change rooms. Once back in their normal clothes, they put their broomsticks away.

"So… what do we do now?" asked James.

"Common Room?" said Sirius.

"No." replied James, without giving a reason. "But we could always go up to the dormitory and tease Moony about- ow!"

Sirius had elbowed him in the ribs as Douglas and Chris passed them. It always hurt about twenty times more when _Sirius_ elbowed you. Sometimes, James wondered if Sirius even knew his own strength. And then there were his elbows – he wasn't sure if he imagined it or not, but it seemed that Sirius had really sharp elbows.

"Or not." said Sirius. "You know how, uh, _touchy_ he gets about… that."

"I s'pose. And I can't have great bat-bogeys flying around my face, I've got a date with Lily in, like, forty-five minutes."

"You do?" asked Sirius, and James nodded.

"We could always do homework." he shrugged. Sirius snorted.

"Surely you're not serious."

"Padfoot, we've been through this a million times. _You're_ Sirius. I'm _James._"

"Oh, how hilariously funny." Sirius rolled his eyes. James grinned – Sirius had been sick of that joke since the first time Remus had used it in first year.

"What do you suppose we do then?" asked James.

"Kitchens?" suggested Sirius. "No, actually. I had too much lunch."

_Well, _thought James,_ I never thought Sirius would ever say the words 'too much lunch'! _And he told Sirius so.

"Shut up. Um, we could… look, why can't we just go back up to the Common Room?"

"_Because,_" said James, as though explaining the obvious, "It's bad luck for a boyfriend and a girlfriend to see each other before a date."

"That's weddings, idiot," said Sirius.

"Oh, right. Well, we might as well go to the Common Room, then."

So the did, accidentally-on-purpose splattering mud all over the corridor to annoy Pringle. Not that they actually had mud on them to start with, but as Sirius said; "Teach _him _to turn me in to McGonagall."

They reached the Common Room, to find Remus and Peter discussing something-or-other. The thing that worried James was that, when he and Sirius found them, they stopped talking instantaneously, exchanging unreadable glances. James felt that horrible feeling one receives when they think someone is talking about them behind their back.

After a few seconds silence, James reasoned that it was quite unlikely that he or Sirius had been the topic of the other two Marauders' conversation. At least. he thought it was unlikely that they were _badmouthing_ them.

"Hi, guys." said Peter. "How was practise?"

"Fine…" said Sirius.

"Yeah." agreed James.

"Hey, Prongs," started Remus, looking thoughtful, "Don't you have a date with Lily tonight?"

"Yeah." said James again.

"When?" inquired Remus. James checked his watch again.

"About half an hour."

"Oh, OK."

There was another silence, but it wasn't so much as uncomfortable as the fact that no one could think of anything to say. James and Sirius sat down.

"So…" said Sirius lazily. "Are you going to ask that Hufflepuff out, Wormtail? What's-her-name, um…"

"No." said Peter quickly.

"Why not?"

They tried to convince Peter to make an advance in his non-existent love life, with no luck, for about twenty minutes. He went so far as to telling them that she was allergic to rats. Remus asked why that was a problem, as he obviously wouldn't be in his animagus form if they ever went on a date, and Sirius wondered aloud how he actually knew about her allergy.

James was checking his watch at regular intervals and not really participating in the conversation. He knew it was mean, but he didn't actually care too much if Peter had a girlfriend or not. He either did or he didn't. And, if he was honest with himself, he didn't think there was a large chance of Peter getting a girlfriend, anyway. Of course, he wouldn't say anything like that to Peter.

"I should probably go." James said at last. He stood up when his mates muttered a unanimous agreement.

"Enjoy yourself." said Remus, grinning. The corners of James' mouth twitched upward, and he left the Common Room, making his way alone to Hogsmeade. He supposed that Sirius, Remus and Peter would go to the village themselves later. It would just be stupid to waste a Hogsmeade weekend.

On the way, he heard Peeves from around the corner. The poltergeist's annoying sing-song voice floated to James ears.

"Ah! _Go away!_" came another voice. This one was feminine and familiar, and much more pleasant than that of the poltergeist. James rounded the corner to see Lily, trying her best to rid herself of Peeves, who was throwing a Fanged Frisbee. She was ducking as the frisbee flew over her head, tearing up its surroundings. Lily looked up and drew her wand. The frisbee stopped in mid-throw and fell onto the floor.

"Piss off, Peeves." sighed James. Peeves turned to see him and cackled. With a devilish smirk and a long, drawn out raspberry, and zoomed off.

"Hi!" said Lily cheerfully.

"You're welcome." said James, smiling.

"For what, exactly?"

"For getting rid of Peeves!"

"I was doing just fine before you showed up, thankyou!" said Lily indignantly. James opened his mouth, and then closed it. There was no point in arguing.

"So shall we, uh, go to Hogsmeade, then?" Lily asked sheepishly, apparently on the same train of thought as James.

"Yeah," he said, and they walked on in silence.

They went past the gates and through to the village. James jerked his head towards the Three Broomsticks in a questioning manner. Lily shrugged, eyebrows raised, and they entered the pub.

"You find a table," said James. "I'll buy drinks. D'you want a butterbeer?"

"Yeah, thanks." said Lily, and walked over to a free table.

_I've got a date with Li-ly! _James' insides sang immaturely as he moved towards the counter to purchase drinks. _Another date with Li-ly! I've got a date with my girl-friend! And Snivelly doesn't even _have_ a girl-friend!_

"Two butterbeers, please." said James. The barmaid looked at him, then over to Lily, eyes laughing. She filled two tankards for him, and he gave her the appropriate amount of gold. James muttered his thanks, and went to join Lily.

"Hey," she greeted him, accepting the butterbeer gratefully. She rubbed her hands together before sipping it. "It's so _cold!_"

"I know," James agreed, shivering deliberately to demonstrate his point. He himself took a sip of the warm drink, and felt it melt pleasantly in his mouth. Licking his lips to draw some of the delicious foam flecked there into his mouth, he drew his jacket more tightly around himself.

"It might even be raining at the Quidditch Grand Final!" Lily continued.

"_That_ would be a world first." said James. Now she mentioned it, though, the weather probably _would_ be dismal on Grand Final day. He should probably take that into consideration with his planning… No. He'd just had Quidditch practise. This whole thing… whole date… was about him and Lily.

Lily and James. It really did sound like a perfect couple's name.

"Huh?" he asked, suddenly realising that Lily had been talking to him.

"I _said,_ are you worried about the Grand Final?"

"Pfft, no." said James, waving a what-he-hoped-looked-careless hand. _Yes._ He muttered internally.

"But it's your last chance as captain!" she exclaimed.

_I know. _He thought.

"I suppose." He said, shrugging. Lily grinned, lowering her tankard from her lips.

"You're terrified." She accused, giggling.

"Am not!" said James childishly. _Damnit._

"Oh, that's so cute!" squealed Lily. "You really care about winning, don't you?"

"Lily, I love you with all my heart, but it must be said; _Shut. Up._"

So she just flashed him a Marauder-worthy grin and drained about half of her butterbeer. James clasped her hand across the table, feeling his lips stretch along his face dopily. He couldn't quite believe that, for many years previously, he had had shouting matches with this girl. But, then again, it had really been the only way he could get her to talk to him then…

Those days were long gone.

"Are you done yet?" Lily asked suddenly, indicating his butterbeer. James looked at her suspiciously.

"Why…?"

"Because." said Lily. How much he thought she looked like a Marauder then.

"Wha? Oh! Oh…" James comprehended her idea at last. He gulped down the remaining three quarters of butterbeer, sloping a large amount of it down his front. Lily laughed as he spluttered.

"Let's go." she said, a smile creeping along her face.

"Yeah," said James. He seemed to be saying that a lot. She nodded and they left the pub to find a more… ah… _private_ spot.

**A/N:** Well… that's another chapter gone. Da da da daaa! I couldn't really think of a better ending, and I want to post this chapter before the bell rings in about…four minutes. So… yeah. Review!


	28. He Can't Control The Weather!

**A/N:** I'm not going on with Lily and James' date… let that be left to the imagination of the reader… haha. Which reminds me – thanks to Raekitty13 (me too!), webling-girl 05, writerchick13, Luna32 (glad you agree! Poor Moony...), PremzaWitchOfWeirdos (da ba de da ba dae), zippyfox and harlz-chum-. Alrighty, I must warn you that this chapter is kind of… repetitive and annoying. I'm not sure that I really like it too much, but whatever. (Oh, and on the very, very, _very_ unlikely chance that my friend evilrandomness reads this chapter, sorry bout the Hufflepuff joke! Lol…)

**Disclaimer:** Yeah… I own Harry Potter, Dumbledore isn't really dead, Voldemort enjoys synchronised swimming, George rocks more than Fred, Luna is perfectly normal, Crabbe is the Chosen One, the last horcrux is a cheap 'Happy Meal' toy, Ron is in love with Lavender and I'm definitely _not_ supposed to be doing my science assignment right now.

Kim sobbed as she pounded the side of her head on the breakfast table, the cutlery, bowls and plates rattling with each thud. James and Sirius both looked sympathetic, whilst Lily and Remus were rolling their eyes. Peter was nowhere to be seen.

"It's OK." said James, patting her on the shoulder. "I feel your pain."

"What?" Lily's head shot up. "_What_ did you say?"

"I felt her pain?" said James, and raised an eyebrow. A sigh of relief left Lily's mouth.

"_Pain._ OK. You scared me for a second there."

A giggle left Kim's mouth, ruining her dramatic performance. She cleared her throat and continued her sobbing and head pounding.

A minute later, Peter showed up. His arms were wrapped around his shoulders, he was obviously cold. He muttered a greeting and sat down at the end of the table. He had reached for food when he turned to Kim.

"What's your problem?" he asked, piling warm food onto his plate.

"Isn't it obvious?" said Sirius.

"Back to school." Remus explained when Peter said nothing.

"Ah," said Peter, nodding his _'fair enough'_.

"We have NEWTs this term!" Kim stressed. "_NEWTs!_ Oh, I'm so going to die."

"No." said Sirius firmly. "I won't let you die and ruin our relationship."

Kim scowled, muttering under her breath.

"So…" said Lily. "Transfiguration first. Have you noticed we have that first just about every day?"

"Yes." said James grudgingly.

"Post's here." Remus commented, as owls swooped noisily above their heads. He received his usual _Daily Prophet_ and ruffled it open to read. "Deaths… disappearances… blah, blah, blah. Still no explanation as to why it's so _cold!_"

"We could ask Assero…" said Kim.

"If it was that easy to figure out, the Ministry'd know by now." said Peter. "Wouldn't they?"

"Well… the Ministry _are_ pretty stupid." said Lily. The others murmured in agreement. Sirius looked meaningfully at Remus.

----------

"How in the name of Merlin did you manage that, Woodsworth?" asked Slughorn, sighing as he looked down onto a Hufflepuff's work. A potion that was supposed to be bright purple had turned yellow, and the cauldron was slowly dissolving. After muttering under his breath, Slughorn sniffed the potion. He waved a wand and vanished it.

"Remember; never add the daisy root before you've stirred. It can counteract, causing-"

"The potion to explode." muttered Snape from the other side of the room. His voice echoed around the dungeon.

"Precisely."

"One more minute and that would've killed us all." whispered Kim, shuddering as the class went back to work. Lily nodded, her eyes wide.

"How is it that someone can turn Decorus Potion into an explosion?" she asked.

"Well… when they're Hufflepuffs…" joked Kim.

"That's so mean!" said Lily in protest. Kim laughed, checked her textbook, and then proceeded to chop up octopus eyes. Lily felt herself about to gag, and turned back to her own book.

Next, grind the tails of two newts… 

Lily's stomach lurched as she read the word 'newts'. She was thinking about the NEWTs so much now, that she too thought it likely that she was going to die. It wasn't the actual exams that worried her the most, although that was a large portion of it…

It was just… after the exams, what else would there be? Nothing. She'd be out of school and into the real world. Right in the middle of a wizarding war. And what would happen to her and James? Would they see each other any more, out of school? And Kim? And Sirius and Remus and Peter? Or the teachers? Or, heck, even _Snape?_ Would she ever see any of them again after Hogwarts? Would they all be killed by Death Eaters? Would any of them join You-Know-Who? Or-

The bell rang loudly, and Lily cursed, realising that she had done less than three quarters of what she was supposed to have accomplished that lesson. Throwing her things into her bag, she rushed out of the classroom before Slughorn could see.

"_Someone's _in a rush." Sirius commented.

"Trying to escape Slughorn." Lily shrugged.

"Why should Slughorn's best student try to escape him? Avoiding another party invitation?" asked Sirius.

"No, he stopped giving parties a while ago. When Lachlan Corner vomited that time last year, remember?"

"Heh, yeah." James caught up with them. "That was hilarious."

"It was disgusting." said Lily. "And it smelt like dead dog."

"I choose to take that offensively." said Sirius. Lily opened her mouth, and then realised what he'd meant, and giggled.

"So lame, Padfoot." James shook his head.

"Well… if she'd said that it smelt like dead stag, what would you have thought?" asked Sirius defensively.

"That she was off her rocker."

"Fair enough."

"Defence Against the Dark Arts now." said Remus, coming up behind them with Kim and Peter.

"Yep."

"Hey, how do you think Assero is going to get the sack?" asked Lily. She was only asking because every Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher that they'd had had never lasted longer than three terms. Lily had heard the rumours that the job was jinxed, but she didn't really believe them.

"Maybe she's really, like, a Death Eater." suggested Kim. "Or she might resign."

"Or maybe she'll accidentally show us pictures of-"

"Yes, please don't finish that sentence, Sirius." said Remus, cutting him off. "Whatever it is that your debauched mind has come up with now, I really don't want to hear it."

"_I_ do." said Kim in a half-jesting, half-serious tone.

"'Tis nothing, Kimberly, my dear." said Sirius with mock fear. Remus made a noise of amusement from behind his closed lips.

They got to the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom, found their seats and opened their books when instructed by Assero. The class involved mainly discussion, as it usually did nowadays, with no practical work. They were told, however, that they would do practical work next lesson. When the bell rang, and it was time for lunch, the seventh year class got up to leave. Lily muttered an excuse to James, and then made her way to Assero's desk.

"Professor?" she asked. Assero looked up from the papers on her desk she seemed to attempting to organise. Her entire desk needed to be organised, really. Lily wasn't sure how she kept track of anything.

"Miss Evans?"

"I was just…" Lily paused. "You know how it's getting so cold and everything?"

"I do indeed." nodded Assero. "Just yesterday I bought a new cloak from Hogsmeade."

"Well… I was wondering if it could have anything to do with You-Know-Who?"

Assero raised one eyebrow, and stared her straight in the eye. "You're sharp, Evans."

"Is that a yes?"

"It may well be." said Assero. "I don't know. He's not powerful enough to control the weather."

"I know, but-"

"I don't know." the Defence Against the Dark Arts professor repeated with a sigh. "I certainly find it difficult to believe that it's natural. Now, off to lunch, Lily."

_She called me 'Lily'! _Lily noted, puzzled.

"Alright. Thankyou, Professor." _For nothing._

And that was the end of the discussion. Assero went back to her papers. Lily walked out of the classroom, thoroughly confused and annoyed. Why couldn't anyone ever just give her a straight answer?

"She was no help, I gather." said James. "Wait, you _were_ asking her about the cold, right?" Lily nodded and turned to see that he was leaning against the wall by the door, arms folded across his chest, frowning in a way that Lily found simply adorable.

"No, no help." said Lily glumly. "She didn't tell me anything we didn't know already."

"Ah," said James. He nodded quickly, and then burst out suddenly; "I don't get it! He can't just _control_ the weather!"

"That's exactly what Assero said." Lily sighed. "And she also suggested that I go to lunch, which is sounding rather inviting. Are you coming, or not?"

"Yeah, I guess." James looked defeated as he pushed himself off the wall and set off in the direction of the Great Hall.

She could see that he was angry, but she wasn't sure why, or who it was that he was mad at. She wasn't exactly worried about him, on the contrary – she felt almost as if she understood what he felt. The war, the NEWTs, the stress of it all was taking it's toll on all of them. Just in different ways. At least they had one another for support.

How life had changed since fifth year.

**A/N:** Ah, another chapter of randomness. But, then again, when have I ever written a chapter that _wasn't _randomness? Never. 'Twas quite interesting to write that encounter with Assero, I wonder if anyone's guessed… well, yeah. And I know the coldness thing is obvious… but yeah. Now ewrevi! Ewrevi! EWREVIEWREVIEWREVIEWREVIEWREVIEWREVI!


	29. And Here Comes The Procrastination

**A/N:** So… Ah! All my English homework is due tomorrow! Sorry, that had no relevance whatsoever. I'm just a little panicked, since I've had, like, all year to do it but I haven't done even half yet. Yeah. Another chapter uploaded, thanks to reviewers zippyfox, writerchick13, Raekitty13, webling-girl05, Luna32, indescribablyBee and PremzaWitchOfWeirdos… you know the drill. And sorry for the uneventfulness, again, of this chapter! I promise they'll get more interesting!

**Disclaimer:** JKR, so far as I know, doesn't crack up in hysterical, irrational laughter every time someone mentions the "Boar Joke". (Cracks up in hysterical, irrational laughter).

"Ja-ames?" Lily asked, tapping her boyfriend on the shoulder. He turned.

"Yeah?" he asked.

"Remus and Peter want to talk to you." She replied, jabbing her thumb over her shoulder at the two Marauders.

"And… why didn't they ask me themselves?"

"_Apparently,_" said Lily, "I'm the only one that can distract you from your Grand Final whatever-you're-doing."

"Oh," said James, his face flushing faintly in a way that Lily thought was hilarious. She could just imagine his face if she'd said _that_ out loud. "Yeah, I guess that's true."

"I'll meet you guys at dinner, around six o'clock." She said, and they nodded.

Lily walked off, leaving them alone. As she left, she heard them talking rapidly in the same distorted version of English that they had used when telling Kim about Remus' 'furry little problem'.

She decided to go to the library and study. Like there was much else to do at five in the afternoon on a Wednesday. With James absorbed in Quidditch-ness (although, apparently, he was talking with Remus and Peter now) and Kim and Sirius off out on the grounds somewhere, undoubtedly snogging, she couldn't really _do_ much, but homework. And though she was fantastic at procrastinating if she needed to, she needed to do the homework more.

The library was filled with giggling fourth years. There was nowhere to sit. Scanning the room a second time, and failing to find anywhere she could sit, she went into one of the isles of books. It wasn't ideal, but perhaps once she finished the reading part, some of the fourth years would have disappeared, and she could use a table to write on. She turned into a row when she saw Alice, sitting on the floor, book in lap.

She looked up quickly as Lily's shadow fell across her page. "Lily, it's you! You scared me!"

"Sorry." said Lily. "I had the same idea as you."

"What?" asked Alice. _Well, duh._ Thought Lily.

"Reading here, and not out there." She explained. Alice blinked.

"Oh. I didn't… I just couldn't be bothered to carry the books out there. Most of them are useless."

"What're you reading?" asked Lily, sitting on the carpeted floor next to her. _And here comes the procrastination…_

"This." said Alice. She lifted the cover so Lily could see it. It was a black, plain volume. Embossed in gold were the words _Weather Oddities in Magical History._

"I'm guessing that it's not homework, then?" said Lily slowly.

"Yeah. The weather's just been getting so cold… I was checking to see if there was any useful information in there."

Lily felt a little shocked. But then she mentally scolded herself. _I was stupid to think that I was the only one that wanted to find out what was going on. Or suspected that something was up._

"Found anything?" she asked eventually.

"No, and this is my fifth book." groaned Alice. "Unless it has something to do with lunar radiation and it's affects on the seawater in contrast to the north and south poles… and even _I_ don't understand what that means."

Lily laughed. "Well, maybe you could send an owl to Frank." she suggested. "You know, ask him if they've got any leads at the Ministry or anything?"

"Good idea!" exclaimed Alice. "I'll do it in the morning."

"Hey, how _is_ Frank, anyway?" said Lily, grinning. Alice bit her lip in apparent embarrassment. She was silent for a second, thinking, then;

"He's great." she gushed. "I haven't seen him in forever, you know. But he owls me every week… he's so sweet. He's really enjoying his Auror training, well, I mean, why shouldn't he? And apparently he's made friends with this other guy who's training with him – Kingsley something – and…"

Lily listened attentively. She realised she'd hardly ever actually talked to Alice properly before. Well, of course, she'd talked with her, and been partnered with her in class once or twice, but never actually had a _proper_ conversation with her. Not by herself.

Their conversation moved onto NEWTs, and then careers, and then parents, and then before long Madam Pince came around, shooing them out and exclaiming that they were being 'far too loud!'

"Oh, I've got to go meet Tara and Emmeline." said Alice, checking her watch. It was just past six. "It was nice talking to you, Lily."

"Yeah." said Lily. Unable to think of anything remotely interesting to say, she simply added; "I'll see you later."

Alice waved and she walked off. Lily smiled and, realising she couldn't go back to the library, and had said she was meeting the Marauders around now, decide upon going to the Great Hall. She went up a couple of flights of moving staircases, and eventually reached the Hall. She passed the Ravenclaws, and was about to sit down at her usual sort of a spot when she realised.

Kim and Sirius weren't back, but she hadn't expected them to be. No, the problem was that none of the _other_ Marauders were there. And it would have had to have been at least ten minutes since she'd agreed to meet them there.

Lily shrugged, and, supposing that they'd be there soon enough, sat down, helping herself to some dinner.

--------

"Barba argentum." said Lily. The Fat Lady swung open and Lily entered the Common Room, ready to yell at James, Remus and Peter for never showing up at dinner. However, as she found out as she climbed through the portrait hole, her job was already being done for her.

"How can you have just… why did you even… ugh!" Sirius was holding his arms up in exasperation. James, Remus and Peter were all facing him, standing a few feet away with sheepish expressions on their faces.

"What's happening?" asked Lily, walking up behind James. Sirius gave her a glare. Remus gave her a look that clearly meant; _He's mad, better go away._

She wondered if she should have apologized to Sirius, as she climbed the staircase. She knew _she_ wouldn't have liked to be interrupted in a lengthy rant. Sighing, she pushed open the door to her dormitory.

"Hey." said Kim from over on her bed. She had a potions book open.

"Hi." said Lily, plonking herself down beside her. "Your boyfriend's a good glarer."

"Is he still at it?" asked Kim with a sigh. Lily nodded. "And you were stupid enough to intervene, right? _Never_ interrupt him when he's yelling."

"I just wanted to know what was going on!" Lily said indignantly. "What _is_ going on?"

"No idea." said Kim vaguely, turning a page of her book. "We got back and I came up here. A second later I heard Sirius yell. I went down to check it out, but unlike _some_ people, I wasn't stupid enough to say anything."

"Yeah, well I don't know him as well as you do." said Lily, and sniggered.

"Oh, shut up." said Kim half-heartedly. "It's probably something stupid, like Quidditch."

"Probably." said Lily.

"Grand Final on Saturday…" added Kim.

"You know who I reckon should commentate?" asked Lily.

"A lot of people." said Kim, to Lily's annoyance.

"Remus." she said.

"Yeah, he'd be a good commentator." Kim agreed. There was a silence for about half a minute. "So who do you think is gunna win on Saturday?"

"Well…" Lily considered it. "Probably Slytherin. But don't tell James."

"Hmm." hummed Kim.

And she went back to her book, and Lily took it as a signal to shut up and do her own studying.

**A/N:** Of course, _we _all know that the thing Sirius is mad about is the Map getting nicked by Pringle. Unless you didn't figure that out. In which case… oops. Oh well, I s'pose you would've found out next chapter anyway… lol…

And there's a real Grand Final on Saturday, too, for anyone else down here in Australia. Footy! Go the Eagles! Even though I barrack for Carlton… but the Swans suck, so I'm going for the Eagles on Saturday. Yeah, OK, I'm shutting up.


	30. Inconveinience

**A/N:** Hey. Of course, now comes the chapter in which the Marauders try, and fail, to get the Map back off of Pringle, which leads to Fred and George's discovery of it, and then Harry's and then… yeah. Thanks to my reviewers, Luna32 (hope you weren't!), Raekitty13, Harlee Prongs (Hmm… I thought he might. Meh.), webling-girl05 (No offence, but I'm glad! Lol…), zippyfox, writerchick13 (Me too!) and PremzaWitchOfWeirdos (EAGLES WON! W00t!). I must warn you that this chapter contains a fair amount of insanity (like, even more than usual) and rambling. Sorry, you can skip it if you like…:P

**Disclaimer:** If I _was_ JKR, I would have proclaimed NevilleLuna canon a looooong time ago. (Come on, Jo! It's perfect!)

With the Grand Final on the weekend, the tension between Slytherin and Gryffindor students became more and more strained. There were quite a few hexing attacks on Gryffindor players; some taking place even in class, and Sirius had already ended up in the Hospital Wing overnight with his head facing the wrong side of his body. James himself hadn't been jinxed yet, but he himself had cursed a few Slytherin players just as they were about to get Tara. Thankfully, it did not result in a detention, thought he suspected that this was because McGonagall, who had caught him, wanted Gryffindor to win just as much as he did.

It was times like this when James found it hard to believe the Sorting Hat's words about Godric Gryffindor and Salazar Slytherin being best friends in times of old.

He soon felt his concentration dropping in basically anything that didn't have to do with Quidditch, and as a world first, this even included Lily. He _knew_ his efforts should be put mostly into schoolwork, what, with NEWTs and everything, but two things in his life had become much more important than school over the past week.

One, of course, was the aforementioned Grand Final.

The other that was on Wednesday afternoon, he, Remus and Peter had lost the joint prized possession of all of the Marauders. On the way to the Quidditch pitch, ready to hex some Slytherins, they had been caught by the caretaker. James had wiped the infamous Marauders Map blank, but not soon enough. Pringle had seen part of it and, convinced it was dangerous in some way ("Well, can you blame him?" said Remus), confiscated it from the three of them. They had returned to the Common Room to tell Sirius, only to be bellowed at with amazing volume until he had set off for Astronomy, with promises to finish his lecture as soon as he got back.

Needless to say, all four of the Marauders were desperate to retrieve the stolen Map that was, in James' opinion, the single most marvellous thing any of them had ever possessed, and had taken a fair amount of two-and-a-bit years to complete. They had spent a day and a half thinking up a way to get it, and finally they had thought up what they thought was the perfect plan.

There was one problem, however.

"Er, does anyone know how to spell inconvenience?" asked Remus.

"No." said Peter.

"Nup." said Sirius.

"No clue." was James' response. Remus sighed.

"Do we even _need_ to put 'inconvenience'?" asked Sirius, whose anger with them had finally died once James and Remus had thought up the idea to get the Map back. He had agreed wholeheartedly with the idea, and James had been glad. His ears had rung for hours after being yelled at by Sirius. As if he didn't get that enough already from teachers.

"Without 'inconvenience', it won't sound like it's really her writing," said Remus, with an air of explaining the obvious. "We've got to have it."

"Well then…" James screwed up his face in thought. "I _think_ it's I-N-C-O-N-V-E-I-N-I-E-N-C-E."

"Yeah, that sounds right-ish," said Peter with a shrug.

"I dunno," Remus still looked critical. "Maybe we should ask someone smart."

"I thought _all_ prefects were smart," Sirius muttered under his breath, though only James could hear him. He chuckled.

"Prongs? Can you ask Lily?"

"Yeah, she'll probably know."

James got up from Remus' bed and bounded down the boys' staircase. He immediately spotted Lily, who was talking to Kim and, for some reason, Alice.

"Yeah, well he owled me back this morning." Alice was saying. "Apparently the Ministry've got no idea. Idiots."

"Oh," said Lily. "Well, thanks for telling us, anyway."

Alice walked off.

"What was that all about?" James demanded. Kim jumped and swore.

"Merlin's beard, you just scared the hell out of me!"

"He has a tendency to do that," said Lily, grinning. "What's up?"

"Um," said James, "This is going to sound a little bit strange, but how do you spell 'inconvenience'?"

"Why?" asked Lily. James could tell she was suspicious. Kim looked curious.

"Yeah, why?"

"Potions essay…?" James said half-heartedly. Lily rolled her eyes.

"I _so_ don't believe that, but I think it's I-N-C-O-N-V-E-I-N-I-E-N-C-E."

"That's what _I_ thought!" said James triumphantly, and Lily and Kim exchanged puzzled looks with raised eyebrows. "Thanks." He kissed the Head Girl briefly, and then ran back up the staircase.

"I was right!" he said, pushing open the door to his dormitory. Sirius, Remus and Peter looked up. "Lily says it _is_ I-N-C-O-N-V-E-I-N-I-E-N-C-E."

"OK." Remus scribbled on the slip of parchment. "What about a signature?"

"Don't put one." said Sirius at once. "Just the name."

"I think we're done, then." said Remus.

"Read it out." said Peter.

Remus nodded and cleared his throat. "Mr Pringle, the parchment found in possession of Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew and James Potter two days previously-"

"Hey, how come _my_ name's last?" asked James indignantly.

"-two days previously was in fact mine. It is a vitally important document, so much so that I could only entrust it to the Head Boy-" (Sirius snorted) "-and one of the prefects. As a charmed parchment, it is understandable entirely that you thought it to be dangerous, but it is critical that I receive it immediately. I apologise for the inconvenience. Yours sincerely, Minerva McGonagall."

"Hmm… I reckon it's believable enough," said Peter, nodding his head. James wasn't sure that the writing sounded _quite_ authentic, but Pringle was pretty thick, after all. And the actual handwriting was identical to McGonagall's – he hadn't known Remus was so good at forging.

"Apart from the part about you and Prongs being trustworthy and stuff, it's good," said Sirius. James and Remus glared at him, even though James himself thought that he had a fair point.

"Shall we go and give it to him now?" said Remus, taking out his wand and making the parchment neatly fold itself.

"Yeah," said Peter.

"Let's go get our Map back!" exclaimed Sirius.

----------

James, Sirius and Peter were around the corner from Pringle's office. They had agreed that it would be most believable if Remus were the one to give the caretaker the supposed note ("He'd most likely trust the _good_ boy." Sirius had commented.)

"He's been forever!" said Peter.

Sirius grabbed James' wrist to check the watch there, and added; "Ten minutes!"

"Maybe Pringle's hanging him from the ceiling by his hair, remember the time he-?"

"Shh!" said Peter. McGonagall was passing by. Unfortunately, she'd seen them.

"What are you boys doing here?"

"Waiting for Remus, he's-"

"In the loo." Sirius interrupted Peter. James' heart banged painfully around in his ribcage, there were no boys toilets near here. McGonagall didn't look convinced, and for one terrifying moment, he thought he saw her eyes flick towards the door of the caretaker's office, but she just nodded curtly and continued walking.

"Close one!" breathed James.

They waited without speaking for about thirty more agonising seconds, and then Remus showed up. His face looked glum (James' spirits dropped) but he _was_ holding some parchment. Sirius, evidently noticing this, gave a whoop of joy.

"Go Moony!" he said, punching the air in triumph.

"Don't get excited, Padfoot." said Remus hollowly. "This is just the fake note."

Sirius' grin slipped from his face about as fast as James' small amount of hope. There was a ringing silence, almost as if commemorating their Map.

It was stupid, but it didn't just feel like he'd lost an enchanted sheet of parchment. It was almost as if the Map had been the fifth Marauder. And now it was gone. Forever. There was no way Pringle would believe them now.

"What happened?" asked Peter quietly after about a minute of silence.

"I gave it to him, and he realised it was fake pretty much straight away."

"So why'd you take so long?" asked James hoarsely. His throat suddenly seemed rather sore.

"He decided to tell me exactly how he knew it was forged," said Remus. "_Leering_ at me the whole time. Apparently, McGonagall always signs her notes, and she'd put it in an envelope sealed with the school crest, and she'd probably tell him something so 'important' in person, and she usually uses a quill that leaves finer lines or something."

"Overly observant little bugger." said James. Sirius agreed with a stream of expletives, referring mainly to the caretaker, although also mentioning McGonagall's 'expensive quills' at one point.

"And the most obvious, according to _him_," said Remus, giving a wry smile that looked horribly painful, "Was that… well, we spelt 'inconvenience' wrong."

James groaned, and ran a hand slowly across his face. Sirius rolled his eyes and muttered inaudible words under his breath. Peter exchanged a suffering look with Remus.

"He'll never believe us now." mumbled Remus, looking apologetic. "We're never getting the Map back. Sorry."

"What're _you_ apologising for?" James burst out. "It wasn't just your fault! It was all four of us! Well… three." He added hastily at Sirius' look.

They all sighed in defeat, Peter's the saddest sounding of all. James wasn't sure how long they stood there, thinking. At one point, someone suggested they go back to Gryffindor Tower, and so they did, in yet the same, mournful manner.

Once at the Common Room, they sat slowly onto their favourite armchairs. Sirius was so lost in thought that he apparently didn't notice that Kim was occupying the seat onto which he was parking his backside. She shrieked, and pushed him off, laughing. However, at one look at their faces, her laughter died.

"What's _your_ problem?" asked Lily. James lifted his face from his hands. He hadn't even noticed she was there, even though she was right next to him.

"Nothing." Sirius muttered, and James was glad. He didn't know why, but he just didn't want to tell the girls. They wouldn't understand.

"Tired." said Peter shortly.

"I'm not _that_ stupid." said Kim.

"Why do you care, anyway?" asked James, anger suddenly exploding in his chest.

"Because you're our mates, and you all look like inferi!" said Lily, her voice rising. "Why can't you just tell us what's wrong? But, I mean, why trust Kim and me, right? We're just two of you four's _girlfriends._ Of course we're not trustworthy!"

"Why me?" James half-yelled. "Why do _I_ have to put up with the most nosy woman on the planet? And what's more, one who CAN'T SPELL!" Before he knew it, he was standing up, fists clenched. All rational thoughts were gone from his brain. He just wanted to shout… and _someone._ Later, he looked back sheepishly and wished that someone hadn't been Lily.

"Oh, I'm so sorry for caring!" Lily was on her feet, too. Her red hair seemed to crackle with anger, and James wouldn't have been surprised if her eyes had burst into flame with the way they were flashing. "I won't bother in future! I guess I just don't have the right to ask what's wrong when you four all look like everyone you know and love have been murdered by Death Eaters!" She stopped yelling, panting, and then her eyes widened and she raised a hand to her mouth. "Oh, is that…?" Anger dying from her eyes, she stopped screaming, and just gave another soft; "Oh."

"It's not that." said Peter. James' head whipped around. He'd forgotten everyone else was there. But they were, and they were all wearing apprehensive expressions. He felt ashamed.

"Sorry." He sighed, and sat back down. "I guess it's just that it's the Grand Final the day after tomorrow… and now _this._"

"It's OK," said Lily, with amazing, patient dignity. James was awestruck. It must've been something only girls could possess. "But what is 'this'?"

"Map." said Remus sadly.

"Pringle." Peter contributed.

"Gone." James added.

"Gits." said Sirius. James wasn't sure to whom he was referring, and hoped it wasn't Remus, Peter and him.

"The _Map_?" said Kim incredulously. "Pringle has the _Map_?" James felt a sudden rush of gratitude towards her. She seemed to understand.

There was a short pause.

"You all look so stressed." said Lily. She hesitated before adding; "Is there any way you can get it back?"

"No, we just tried." said Remus. He was still using that hollow voice.

James felt a cool, smooth hand clasp his own, and his eyes followed it up to reach Lily. She smiled warmly. He was amazed at how forgiving she was being. _Sorry for yelling._ He mouthed. Lily looked puzzled, so he mouthed it a second time. This time she understood. _It's OK._ She mouthed back with half a smile.

_It's one of the darkest days in the history of the Marauders._ James thought. _Maybe one day we'll look back on this and laugh…_ Still, it was very unlikely.

**A/N:** (Insert black and white film clip of James and Marauders Map on swing set with _McArthur Park_ as background music here.) Well… I wasn't quite sure how to handle that chapter, really, but I hope it was OK. Again, if there's anything you want me to do, improve on, include etc. just tell me and I probably will. (…unless it's to stop writing, because – although I know my writing's bad enough – it's fun! And I might object to a suggestion that involved jumping off a cliff.) Also, that inconvenience thing, was that too weird? It kind of started as an idiotic idea from a true story, in which we were forging a note for one of my friends to get out of PE, and got out of control. So… yeah.


	31. The Last Quidditch Game, Ever

**A/N:** The Marauders are so stupid! Why didn't they just summon the Map? Well, I guess they've got to keep it canon… lol. Anyway, now onto the Grand Final. As all who read chapter nine should know, I _suck_ at writing Quidditch – like, more than I suck at everything else. I don't know how Jo does it, but then, she _is_ JKR. OK, many thanks to PremzaWitchOfWeirdos, Raekitty13, webling-girl05, Luna32, zippyfox, Super Cara, NikkyB and writerchick13 for your reviews.

**Disclaimer:** Of course I'm J K Rowling! I've only ever written sixty-nine disclaimers saying I'm not! Well, seventy, including this one.

The roar of the stadium filling his ears even from the change rooms, James had never felt more aware in his life that he was Gryffindor Quidditch captain. This was going to be the last Hogwarts Quidditch game he was ever going to play. Probably the last official game of Quidditch. Ever. It was going to be memorable, whether he won or lost.

_Still, I'd rather remember it as a day we kicked Slytherin's butt. _He thought nervously, strapping his Quidditch padding on. He hadn't made eye contact with anyone yet, whilst in the change room, but he was very aware of all of their eyes on his back. He knew they were all ready to play, and waiting for his pep talk, but he couldn't really think of anything.

But he knew he'd have to say something eventually, so he turned around to face all of them. His heart softened as he looked at his team. He really was proud of every one of them.

"Look," he said. "I would say that it doesn't matter whether we win or lose, because we've gotten this far and stuff, but we all know that's a lie." He seemed to have acquired a lot of phlegm in his throat. Swallowing, he continued.

"I mean, you guys've been a great team, and I'm proud of you and stuff…" James worried that this was beginning to sound too cliché and stupid.

"But, well, this is the _Grand Final,_ guys! What's more, it's me and Sirius and Tara's last Quidditch game, ever." His voice broke on the last word.

"So let's forget that the whole school's watching, and that most of us have been jinxed by Slytherin idiots in the past week, and just thrash them!" He half-grinned, and received six identical ones back.

"Let's go. Good luck."

It was four times as loud on the actual pitch than it was from the change rooms. It was also spitting with rain, and James was sure that drops of water would have been gathering on his glasses, had they not been purchased from Diagon Alley and repelled wind and water.

He felt slightly heartened at the sight of the scarlet crowd, which contained more than just Gryffindors. However, his anxiety came hurtling back as he turned to face the Slytherin team, his stomach queasy.

"The final line-up for today's game has just come through," the magical microphone boomed, once again projecting Jonathan Martin's voice. "For Gryffindor," (there was a roar of approval) "We have James Potter, Christopher Adams and Tara Light as the Chasers," (boos from Slytherins) "David Carlton and Sirius Black-"

"We love you, Sirius!" came a collection of girl's voices. James looked over his shoulder to glance at Sirius, but he wasn't grinning cockily as he normally would be. In fact, his face appeared to be tinged light green.

"-as the Beaters," Martin continued. "Kate Burnett for Keeper and Douglas Harrison as Seeker!"

There was an uproar of cheers, feet stamping, clapping, and James was pretty sure he heard a lion's roar, from the red section of the crowd. The green portion booed, hissed and jeered.

"For Slytherin," (those wearing green and silver made a great deal of racket) "We have Darnell Collingwood, Bentley Wells and Geoffrey Patman as Chasers," (a very loud 'You suck!' from a Gryffindor supporter) "Robert Miles and Montgomery Alton as Beaters, Gisela Newman for Keeper and Vincent Parker as Seeker!"

James looked the team over, sizing them up. They hadn't played Slytherin yet this year. He noticed that, for the first time since he'd started at Hogwarts, Slytherin had a girl on their team. She was as big and tough-looking as the rest of them though… in fact, if he hadn't known her name, James doubted he would have realised that Newman was of feminine genetic structure. She resembled a chipmunk that had run headlong into something flat, with an upturned nose.

He could barely hear the shout of "Captains, shake hands!" by the umpire, over the noise.

He walked forwards and shook hands with the captain, Darnell Collingwood. His grip was tight, although James suspected this was mainly because he was trying to crush the Gryffindor captain's fingers. Well, two could play that game. James clenched his fist so hard against Collingwood's hand that his nails dug into flesh. They both let go, and James secretly flexed his hand by his side in an attempt to rid it of the pain Collingwood had caused.

"Mount your brooms!"

The fourteen players swooped upward. It was very cold in the air. His stomach turned five times over, but he was sure it wasn't to do with force. He though of Lily, Remus, Peter and Kim in the crowd, supporting them, and felt slightly heartened, until Sirius flew past him and emitted a cough that sounded suspiciously like 'Lily Face!'

The whistle was blown, the quaffle thrown upward and the bludgers and snitch released. James streaked forwards and caught the quaffle first, soon afterward throwing it to Chris. Chris threw it to Tara, who threw it to James, then it was back to Tara. It was a new tactical stroke he'd been working on.

"And it's Potter! Adams! Light! Potter! Light! Potter! Adams! Wow, they're fast." Martin commented as they slowly worked their way down the pitch, continuously swapping the quaffle between them. "Adams! Light! Po… er, Collingwood."

One of the Slytherin Chasers caught the quaffle, tucked it under his arm, and sped across the pitch.

"And a fantastic bludger there from David Carlton! Caught by Slytherin Chaser, Patman. He's about to score – come _on_ Gryffindor! No, Professor, I am _not_ being biased about it… What? A _foul?_ WHAT KIND OF A REFEREE ARE YOU?"

Tara, in an attempt to stop Slytherin from scoring, had clutched the back of Patman's broomstick. He'd turned around and swerved sharply, sending Tara flying. Alton and Miles, the Slytherin Beaters, were yelling protests. Now Slytherin had a penalty shot.

"It doesn't say you're not allowed to do that in the rules!" James exclaimed, joining the Gryffindor supporters, even though he was quite sure this wasn't the truth. James clenched his teeth. He hated penalty shots – he wasn't allowed to intervene. It was just between the Chaser and the Keeper. He mentally willed Kate to make the save.

"Alright, alright, _fine._ Slytherin Chaser, Patman, lines up to make a shot. Come on Kate!" There was a pause as the entire school held its breath. "Agggh! Gryffindor Keeper Kate Burnett misses the ball! Ten nil to Slytherin! Are we sure she hasn't been confounded?"

James swore and turned to face Kate. She gave him an apologetic glance before throwing the quaffle towards him with a loud _thunk_. James grasped it thankfully, and chucked it to Tara, swerving between bludgers, broomsticks and people.

"Light with the quaffle. Caught by… ah, Wells. Seized by Christopher Adams!" James lined up parallel to Chris, narrowly avoiding a bludger with the sloth-grip roll, held his arms out in preparation to receive the pass. But it never came. Chris was still flying forwards, with remarkable speed. Puzzled, James followed, but Chris stopped suddenly, almost sending himself hurling off of his broomstick.

"What the hell are you doing?" James bellowed, as Chris gripped tightly onto both his broom and the quaffle.

"Uh, interesting tactics!" Martin commented. A few Slytherins laughed.

"It's – not – me!" Chris panted, his broom now jerking backwards and forwards. "It's the – ah! – _Broom!_"

"Look!" Came Douglas' voice from behind. James whipped his head around to see his Seeker not circling above the game as was originally planned, but hovering right behind him.

"_What?_" he asked. Sirius whacked a bludger towards Slytherin players from afar to stop them prizing the quaffle from Christopher's grip.

Douglas pointed. The Slytherin Keeper, Newman, had her wand out, and it was pointed toward Chris' broom. Her face was alight with glee, but she saw Douglas' hand and tucked her wand into her robes.

"Tell the umpire!" Douglas urged Chris.

"Nah, no use crying over spilt potion." said James, shaking his head like a wet dog. "They've stopped now. Here, Chris. Pass. Douglas, get back up there."

He caught the quaffle and headed for the Gryffindor end of the pitch. He received a hard glare from Newman. James was determined to make the shot. It was as though all the anger bottled up inside of him the past few weeks, at Pringle, at McGonagall, at Slytherin, even at Lily at times, all came down to this one goal. He feigned left, Newman followed, and quickly shot into the right hoop. Noise exploded from the stands.

"Ten all!" came the commentary.

"Nice one!"

"Good shot, Prongs!"

Gryffindor scored two more goals, and gained a lead. By the time Collingwood had scored Slytherin a second goal, it had begun to rain more heavily, and within a few minutes everyone was soaked through. James was just chasing after Wells when the two Seekers dived suddenly. James wasn't sure who was behind who, he urged Douglas on, forgetting entirely about his pursuit for the quaffle.

James couldn't see the snitch anywhere near where they were diving. _I suppose it's the rain,_ he thought, dropping a few feet as he saw a bludger hurtling towards his head out of the corner of his eye.

Then he realised that one of them must have been feinting. He hoped that it was Douglas.

"Bludger from Montgomery Alton! Harrison ducks, and unfortunately – I mean, thankfully – Seeker Vincent Parker swerves to avoid it."

James breathed a sigh and, catching a meaningful look from Sirius, sped towards the Slytherin end of the pitch too late. Wells had scored.

"Thirty all! Blimey, this is a close match."

The uncomfortable throbbing in his throat increased. It _was_ close. James had a bad feeling that it would all come down to whichever Seeker caught the snitch first. And Parker was a good player, with an even better broom.

He shook himself, and put himself back into play, just as Chris was awarded a penalty shot for being thwacked with a Beater's bat.

"ADAMS SCORES! Forty – thirty, Gryffindor back in the lead!"

Sirius made a triumphant gesture that caused his broomstick to rock violently. James gave a snort of laughter as his best friend wobbled and struggled to remain seated on his Swiftstick.

"OK, Collingwood with the quaffle. Wells. Collingwood. Patman. Still Patman. Wells again."

With a childish spurt of anger, James realised that the Slytherins were copying their tactics.

"Patman. Light! Light to Potter! Potter to…"

The commentary trailed off. James paused in mid-throw. The stands suddenly became deathly quiet. The players all stopped playing, David ignoring a bludger that shot past his left ear. James shivered with cold.

The two Seekers were speeding towards the middle of the pitch, angling upward. This time it was clear why, a glimmer of gold was visible, reflecting the slowly diminishing sunlight.

There was a yell of "Come on Douglas!", breaking the silence. There were a few more cheers, either for Douglas or for Parker, and then an eruption of noise, everyone, even the players, goading one of the Seekers on.

James' heart was caught in his throat. This was it. He paid no heed to the quaffle in his arms, but nor did any of the five other Chasers.

"GO GRYFFINDOR!" yelled Martin, his magically magnified voice only just raising over the noise everyone else was making.

The whole school watching them, the opposing Seekers grasped out. And then padded fingers clasped around the snitch.

At first, James couldn't work out who had caught it. But then he saw the faces of the green and scarlet coloured people in the crowd. He heard the loud cussing of some players behind him, and the triumphant cheering of others. And he felt shocked, amazed… his jaw dropping almost to the ground (which really was rather far whilst flying a broomstick)… a bubble of feeling rising in his chest…

Parker rose into the air, grinning stupidly, his fist imprisoning a tiny, golden ball. Douglas flew swiftly down to the ground, looking stony faced. James closed his eyes and rubbed his temples with two fingers, the celebration of Slytherins and outrage of Gryffindors hardly being heard.

They had lost.

They had lost to _Slytherin._

They had lost the last Quidditch game he was ever going to play.

They had lost the Grand Final.

----------

"Sorry." said Douglas slowly for the umpteenth time. The flickering firelight illuminated the lines of bitter disappointment on everyone's faces.

The team were slumped in armchairs in the Common Room, feeling defeated and ashamed. James felt that nothing could make him feel better. Before going to bed, Lily had already promised to cheer him up the next day. He hardly dared believe it. After all, _Quidditch_ normally cheered him up. But, then again, Gryffindor normally won.

He shook his head in Douglas' direction. He didn't think he could speak.

"For the last time, it wasn't _your_ fault, mate," said Chris, his voice slightly muffled as his head was in his hands.

"Don't blame it on yourself," said Sirius. "It's a team game. And Vincent–bloody–Parker's just got a better broom. Otherwise you would've caught it."

"It's not fair." Kate agreed. "They should give all the players the same broomstick. _Then_ it'd make more sense."

"Yeah, and everyone knows that the Slytherins are all rich snobs." added Tara, nodding wearily. James knew that that was slightly prejudiced, but he was in no position to disagree.

He wanted to say _something_. To say how well they'd played anyway. To say that to get to the Grand Final itself was an achievement. To agree with the insults they were angrily throwing at absent Slytherins. Even if he didn't believe them, he had to say them. Like they were. He knew they all expected him to – but he hadn't even said a word since Parker had caught the snitch.

"At least we played a good game," commented David, ever optimistic, though he still spoke in a monotone.

"Yeah, we did." said James quietly. They looked up expectantly. "And… well… I hope you guys who're here next year have better luck." He exchanged glances with Sirius and Tara.

"Sorry." said Douglas again. Kate laid a hand on his arm comfortingly, whispering something into his ear. Douglas smiled without humour, and nodded.

"I guess what I'm trying to say," said James, still figuring out exactly what he _was_ trying to say. "Is thanks."

He was presented with a rush of replies, saying he didn't need to thank them, but thanking him back anyway.

He looked around at his team for what he felt was the last time as captain. He knew somehow that this was the end of playing Quidditch altogether for him. He had bigger things to do. Maybe one day he'd see them all again, perhaps even playing professionally.

_Most of them will probably play for Britain one day, with their skill._ James thought, although he didn't say it out loud. It would be too corny. But he grinned, swelling with pride, if not happiness.

"I'm going up to bed." Sirius announced. "G'night, all."

There was a murmur of concord, and then most of the team got up and headed toward their dormitories. Just Sirius and James were left.

Sirius twitched his eyebrows questioningly, yet in defeated manner at the same time. "Good game, eh?"'

"Yeah," said James in a low voice, shaking his head and sighing, and they trudged up the stairs. "Good game."

**A/N:** Well… that's that. Poor Prongs, I've been giving him a bit of a rough time lately. That being said, however, he gets to be cheered up by Lily next chapter… that should be nice and fluffy… :D It was also lots of fun to make up Slytherin players names! Oh, in the first HP book it says that it would take really powerful magic to jinx a Nimbus. I figured that, in MWPP era, the brooms would've been much less technologically advanced, and that's why an idiot of a Slytherin student was able to jinx Chris' broom.


	32. My Dad Always Said

**A/N:** Ahh! I haven't updated _anything _in what seems like forever – although it can't have been _too_ long, can it? I've just been sooo busy, starting school again (sigh), getting ready for my drama play, attempting to complete homework, babysitting, reading, watching new DVDs, attending Halloween parties, working on new oneshots and eating far too much birthday cake than I probably should. However, I've updated now… and with the promised fluffiness! But before we get to that, we need to make our way through 459 words of not so fluffy storyline (Yes, I _did_ make it quite a bit shorter than I really thought I should have… but I wanted fluff! FLUFF!). And thanks a bunch to indescribablyBee, webling-girl05, Super Cara, Luna32, writerchick13, Raekitty13, zippyfox and PremzaWitchOfWeirdos for reviews!

**Disclaimer:** I would if I could, but I can't. So I… shan't.

Lily's head span uncontrollably as she tried to take in what she'd just heard. It was… unheard of! Yet believable. It fitted. But she couldn't believe it. She didn't _want_ to believe it.

"No _way!_" said Sirius loudly, breaking the silence that had surfaced among them. The puffing Peter nodded and held up a hand to show them he'd answer as soon as he caught his breath.

"Yeah, it's true. The Ministry just found out." He replied finally, half-choking. "It'll be in the _Evening Prophet._"

"Well then, how do you know?" asked Kim.

"My Mum's brother works in the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes, and of course, the whole Ministry knew after a few minutes. He sent Mum an owl, and she wrote to me a minute later." Peter looked beyond terrified, and Lily could tell he wasn't lying.

"Merlin." said Remus quietly.

"We're all going to die." said Peter, shaking his head. "That's it. It's over. We're done for."

"We're not going to die, Wormtail." said James. He looked a way Lily had never seen before. He was determined, and serious and solemn. It was a drastic change, but she quite liked it. The only thing she didn't like so much was his mouth. It was set in a hard, tense line.

Were the situation not so serious, Lily would have grinned at the thought that she may be able to… loosen it up a bit later.

"But _how?_"

"I _told_ you." sighed Peter. "My uncle-"

"No, I mean, how'd He do it?" said Remus.

"The Death Eaters have way more to offer than the Ministry." said Lily. "It's no wonder they've joined Him. It explains the cold, and the wind, and _everything._"

"But…" Peter looked lost. "_Dementors?_ You-Know-Who has _dementors?_ I mean, he's got Death Eaters as well. Soon he'll be rallying _giants,_ and then _werewolves_ and…" he paused, glancing apologetically at Remus, who shook his head to show he didn't mind. "We might as well join Him now. What chance have we got against Him?"

"A ruddy good chance." said Sirius shortly, addressing them all as a whole. "We'll be out of school next year. We'll be able to fight. Besides – He hasn't got the giants on his side, not yet. And at least we have_ one_ werewolf." He nudged Remus, who this time glared.

"I can't believe this." said Kim. "My Dad always said that the dementors would get out of Ministry control one day. We never believed him."

Lily rubbed her head wearily. Dementors on the loose and out of Ministry control was the last thing anyone needed right now. Temperatures were already fraying because of the stress of being a seventh year. It certainly wasn't easy taking NEWTs during a wizarding war.

----------

"Lily?"

"Yes?"

"Where are we going?"

Lily thought about the question in silence for a moment, her arm linked with James' as they walked out the doors of the castle. Icy cold wind whipping at her hair, and his, she answered; "Nowhere in particular. Why?"

"Oh, no reason," said James, the sarcasm nearly undetectable in his voice. Lily sighed.

"You've been being such a depressing prat of late. I thought you could do with some cheering up."

"So you said last night." said James. "However," he added, "I don't see why taking a Sunday afternoon stroll in the freezing cold is going to cheer me up."

"Well, I considered cheering charms, but I figured; hey, if I might as well do something I'd enjoy, as well."

"Oh, so we're _not_ going to go hex Snivellus." James' face had lit up, although Lily wasn't sure whether this was because of what she'd said, or the prospect of hexing Snape.

"No." she said firmly, wrapping an arm around him.

"Well, I suppose we could find a way to make this just as fun." said James, wiggling his eyebrows in signature fashion. Lily grinned. _This_ was the James she had missed over the past couple of weeks. The flirtatious, idiotic, egotistical one, whom she thought was wonderful even when he _was_ being a git. The one that was always cheerful – a little _too_ much at times – and was forever rumpling his hair.

"That's what I thought." said Lily, pulling the beloved Head Boy closer for a kiss. She sighed inwardly. _James_ was back.

Kissing him really was a good way to rid her mind of any unpleasant thoughts. Or any thoughts at all, really.

They broke apart and Lily rested her head on his shoulder. James kind of twirled her around aimlessly, so it looked a bit like they were slow dancing, except without the music. It was all much more romantic than real dancing would have been, though, even with the grey sky, and the horribly runny nose she'd recently acquired. She bit back a smile, thinking of what would happen were Sirius with them.

"Are you in a better mood yet?" asked Lily.

"Not _quite._" said James, a sparkle in his eyes. Lily exhaled, muttering insults half-heartedly. And James got a questioning look on his face, before shrugging and kissing her again, still spinning her around.

"You hopeless romantic." said Lily.

"Yeah, well… this could be my last night alive, what do you expect?" said James seriously.

Lily's breath caught in her chest. "What do you mean?" she said quickly.

"It's full moon tomorrow night." James grinned. Lily glared at him.

"Don't, James."

"Don't what?"

"Joke about that. Do you know how worried I get every full moon?"

"Aw, you _worry_ about me, Evans?" James' tone was teasing, but Lily could tell he wasn't asking just to annoy her. There was something in his eyes that looked… well, she couldn't tell what, but it was definitely serious.

"Of course I do." she muttered, her voice muffled, as her face was buried against him. She could never stay mad at him for long. Particularly when squashed against his chest.

They half-danced in silence for about a minute. Then James stopped abruptly. "I was getting dizzy." He explained.

"Oh," said Lily, in an oddly high pitched voice.

Silence engulfed them. A gust of wind blew violently, messing Lily's hair up, and James' up even more. And now they knew why it was so cold. _Dementors!_ She wondered for about the fiftieth time that day how Voldemort had bribed them to join him, and shuddered.

"This might well be the last time we'll be able to go outside the castle by ourselves. I mean, once they've put in new security measures, which they're bound to." said Lily.

"Well," James sighed dramatically. "We can always do this sort of thing inside. When we're meant to be on patrol duty, for example."

Lily laughed softly. "You must be the absolute _worst_ Head Boy this school's ever had."

"Yeah," said James, looking thoughtful. "Sometimes I even wonder…"

"Yes?" Lily prompted him.

"Well, if Dumbledore just made me Head Boy because _you_ were Head Girl."

"Meaning?"

"You know, so we would–"

"Get together, you mean?" said Lily. She thought for a second. "Well, it's possible. Although I'm fairly sure it wasn't Dumbledore with that mistletoe."

James nodded in agreement. "Yeah. Kim's dad might always say that the dementors would get out of Ministry control, but my dad always said 'When you want something from a woman, perseverance is the key.'" He paused. "He was usually talking about me being allowed a new broom and stuff from Mum, though."

Lily laughed. "That explains a lot about you. The only thing _my_ dad always says is 'Lily! Clean your room!' or 'Lily! Stop threatening to turn your sister into a Chihuahua!'"

"A Chihuahua? I'd like to see that."

"Mmm. Sometimes it was a baboon. Never actually did it, though."

It was funny. They would talk about these sorts of stupid things in front of everyone, but they would also talk about it whilst alone. Lily liked that. It made her feel that James didn't only like her because she was a girl; he liked her because she was… well, _her._ Like she was not only his girlfriend, but just his friend, as well. And that he didn't only put up with her for the times he could get her alone.

She felt that way about him, anyway. She could tell him the same sorts of things as she could Kim, and yet she and Kim never snogged themselves senseless when in Hogsmeade together…

That wasn't the best mental picture.

"What're you thinking about?" said James, studying her face with an odd look in his hazel eyes.

"Nothing interesting." she replied, shrugging, even though she could tell he could see through it.

"Not giving me the straightest answers today, are you?" asked James. She liked that, too. He would let her keep some things private. Most of the time. Even though she never let him.

Heck, was there anything she _didn't_ like about him?

Silence was sustained for a few seconds.

"So," said Lily, still enveloped in James' arms. "Is it working?"

"The cheering charm replacement, you mean?" he asked. "Yes. Well."

Lily put on her most irritating face, complete with pouted lip and sceptical eyebrow. "Prove it."

And James did so with a kiss that took Lily by complete surprise, she'd half been expecting a lame-yet-witty line. _But then, _she realised, _James wouldn't ever do anything _but_ kiss his girlfriend with gusto at every given opportunity._

"James?" she murmured.

"Uh-huh?"

She paused, then; "How would He get dementors on his side?"

James sighed in a way that sounded a little disappointed, and looked at her with an unreadable expression. "Do we need to discuss this now?"

"I'm just curious. If you'd rather just kiss again, we can 'discuss it' later tonight."

James' eyes sparked with amazing energy. She would have thought that they had little light bulbs behind them if she hadn't known that electricity wouldn't work at Hogwarts. "_Later tonight?_" he asked with a fairly convincing innocent expression.

"Yes, later tonight." said Lily quickly. "Uh, in the Common Room."

"The _Common Room?_" said James, grinning evilly as he faked shock. "Lily, these sorts of things should be done in private! You don't want Gryffindors–"

"You know," said Lily, glaring even though she was vaguely amused. "I always thought Sirius had the sickest mind out of you four, but after that last comment, you're pretty close. That's _disgusting,_ James Potter."

"Have you ever thought about being a mother?"

"Ex-ca-_use_ me?" said Lily, no longer amused. James' eyes widened, and he chuckled.

"I didn't mean it like that this time! I swear!" He held up his hands in defence, before continuing. "I meant that you'd be a good mother because you're great at telling people off."

"Is that a compliment?" Lily's anger had evaporated as soon as James had said the word 'swear'.

"More a suggestion, really," said James, earning a hard whack from Lily on the arm. He gave her a long-perfected apologetic look, and said; "I can't help it, alright? I'm a guy. It's all we think about."

"I know," said Lily with dignity.

Truthfully, it had really given her a lot to think about. Kids, namely. Since she'd realised she'd liked James, she'd often thought about getting married and, once or twice, having children. She'd always been certain that it was what she wanted to do with her life. But now she realised that everything was different. Now they knew just how powerful Voldemort really was. _Dementors,_ for God's sake. Ministry dementors. Did she really want to raise children into a world that would soon, undoubtedly, be overrun with Dark Magic and Death Eaters?

And then she snapped back to reality, and scorned herself for thinking at all about kids, and that she and James weren't married, yet, and she hadn't even graduated or gotten her career underway, and so she definitely didn't have enough gold to bring up a child. Plus, having kids involved… _other_ emotional sorts of things.

And _then_ she remembered that she wasn't on her own, and that James was with her. But he was putting up with her thoughtful silence, frowning slightly, so that a crease had appeared between his eyebrows.

And the thought struck her that he might not just be waiting for her to stop thinking, and actually be thinking hard himself. She wondered, very vaguely, if his mind was on the same thing as her.

James looked up from his trail of thought at her. "What's wrong?" he said suddenly, his eyes narrowing.

"Nothing."

"You sure?"

"Yep."

"OK…"

She smiled at him. How often did a guy like James come along? One who could tell you if were even slightly upset, and asked about it.

And to truly show her thanks, she kissed him hard. And he returned the favour.

**A/N:** Heh… fluff. I like fluff, OK? It makes me feel good. Read my drabbles fic for proof. Now… to those who haven't guessed (or were pretending not to, to make me feel a bit better)… what was your opinion of the dementors?

PS. I'm not sure what sort of bloodline Peter came from, I don't think we've ever been told, so I gave him half-blood. If that's not right, don't blame me. :P


	33. Sparkly Gold Bows & Ridiculous Excuses

**A/N:** Wassup? OK, fans of Remus (especially the ones who hate Peter), please don't hate me after this chapter! Basically, a few people have been asking me 'Remus is awesome, how come he doesn't have a girlfriend?' So I'm kinda trying to answer that in the story. However, there are a heap more reasons, even if you do work out the what-I-hope-was-subtly-hinted-at one, and if you want them I can give them to you. And thanks to the superbly awesome people that decided to waste some time and show that they were superbly awesome by reviewing, namely xo-MidnightSun-ox, harlz-darlz, Em3191, Super Cara, webling-girl05, Luna32 (Pleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleaseplease etc. don't hate me!), PremzaWitchOfWeirdos, LovinJamesPotter, Prince Jonathan's Lover (Lyk omg thanks!), indescribablyBee, Raekitty13, writerchick13 and zippyfox.

**Disclaimer:** I'd love to be paid to write, but I think the only person who'd pay me to do that would be someone with the same portion of sanity as… Parry.

"_Patronuses?_" said Sirius loudly. "But we've already done them!"

There was some chuckles, as Professor Flitwick blinked in bewilderment. But Sirius was right. They _had_ done patronuses, at the beginning of the year, in Defence Against The Dark Arts.

"Quite right, Black. Quite right."

"Well then, why are we doing them again?"

"The Headmaster requests that you be taught them again, after…" Flitwick paused. "Recent events."

"But why are we doing them in Charms?" muttered Kim. Lily shrugged.

"Well, the patronus _is_ a charm."

"Yes, but still, it is more of a Defence thing…"

And it wasn't the first, or last, thing in class that cropped up about dementors. Slughorn, McGonagall and Flitwick all had something to say on the subject, as did, apparently, Sirius and Kim's Astronomy teacher, Professor Dumblock. Warnings were put up around Hogsmeade, and it was all anyone could talk about for a few days.

Soon, however, the news was no longer fresh, and the students found other things to talk about and do.

"Lily," said Peter, through a mouthful of sausage, "Don't mean to bug you, but could you take this owl's letters? It's starting to creep me out."

Lily looked up from her _Daily Prophet_ and glanced at the owl in question. It was hopping around from foot to foot, obviously discomforted by the three letters tied to one of them, and staring at Peter with unblinking, yellow eyes. One of the letters had _Lily Evans, Hogwarts School_ written in on it in black ink, in handwriting that she recognised as her mother's, and the other two were identical, although the names James Potter and Kimberly Meadowes replaced Lily's.

Lily untied all the letters, and handed two of them to Kim and James respectively. She took her own curiously, and said; "It's from Mum."

She slipped her finger under the tab and pulled the envelope open, revealing a slip of pink card, folded neatly in half. It had a little, sparkly gold bow on the front, as well as _Lily Evans_ again, in print so identical to the name on the front, she would have thought it was copied magically had she not known it was from her muggle parentage.

"And what does Lily's mum have to say?" said Sirius, trying to glance over James' shoulder. Lily rolled her eyes. She loved her mum, but she just didn't _get_ it sometimes, especially things relating to school, and the wizarding world in general.

James made a noise of mixed horror and bemusement.

"What?" said Remus, now craning his neck and trying to see the card too. James was staring at it, unable to speak. Sirius glanced at Kim, who cleared her throat and said in a comically posh voice;

"_Kimberly Meadowes,_

_You are cordially invited to join us in celebrating the wedding of_

_Petunia Evans_

_&_

_Vernon Dursley_

_On the 17th of August, 1978._

Formal dress… St Mary's Church… blah, blah, blah."

She glanced up at Lily with raised eyebrows in exasperation. James did the same, but for what Lily suspected were entirely different reasons.

Kim had met Petunia before, and had not liked her at all. The feeling had been entirely mutual. Kim was polite-ish to most people she met, and had got on with Lily's parents, but still threatened Petunia often with hexes, and Petunia had responded with insults at everything from Kim's heritage to her hair.

James had never met Petunia, but he'd heard enough complaints about her from Lily. Yet she didn't think this was his motive for dreading the wedding.

"Aw, Prongsie gets to meet the 'rents!" Sirius teased.

"I wonder if Mr and Mrs Evans will _like_ you?" Peter joined in mocking James.

"I'm sure he'll be fine." said Remus airily, pouring himself pumpkin juice. "If Lily's rants are to be trusted, it's Petunia you have to worry about."

"Yeah, flash 'em the Potter Charm and they'll like you. Besides, it's only just May. The wedding's in August." said Lily. She found his hand and squeezed it.

James was silent for a second, but smiled weakly. "They sent the invitation pretty early, didn't they?"

"That's my parents." said Lily. She rolled her eyes again.

"Do I _have_ to go?" said James.

"Well, I'm not going." said Kim, eyeing the sparkly ribbon on the front with apparent disgust.

"Oh… please?" said Lily. "I really don't want to sit around, getting chatted up by Dursley's mates."

"I'm going," said James immediately.

"I think I'd better go, too," said Sirius, glaring at the invitation as though it was all the card's fault that it was likely that his girlfriend was going to be chatted up by fat muggles.

"Don't be ridiculous, you're not even invited." scolded Kim.

"Well, I'll borrow the Cloak and hex anyone who makes a move on you."

Remus made a small, quiet noise. They all turned to him questioningly, and he shrugged and took another swig of pumpkin juice.

----------

"I just wish he _wouldn't._" said Kim, as they entered the Common Room through the portrait hole.

"Well," said Lily disdainfully. "Then _tell _him."

"But–" she stopped talking as they reached the armchairs that the Marauders were sitting in.

"Well, what about Marlie? You know, Marlene McKinnon?" added Sirius after, a blank stare from all of his friends. He was obviously offering a suggestion of some sort, something to do with one of their Ravenclaw classmates.

"_No._" said Remus. "And anyway, she's going out with Alan Baker."

"Oh yeah," said Sirius. "Let me think…"

"What's going on?" said Kim. She gave Sirius a brief kiss on the forehead. Peter looked up and beamed. Lily didn't think she'd ever seen him so happy, least of all in the past few weeks. He'd been losing weight, (which, knowing Peter, was something) and looking strained. But he grinned toothily, and received a friendly nudge from James.

"Wormtail got a date!" he announced loudly.

"Really?" said Kim. Lily could tell she was shocked. She recovered slightly and smiled. "Who?"

"Nicky Cooper!" Peter squeaked excitedly.

"That sixth year Hufflepuff he's liked for ages." James muttered in Lily's ear, to clarify. She liked the way his breath was warm, and lingered on her cheek for a moment. She also liked the smell of it. It was a bit like vanilla ice-cream. He was so perfect. She couldn't understand how she'd ever hated him. But then, she hadn't really _hated _him.

"Congrats, Peter." said Lily. "So where does Marlene McKinnon come in to this?"

Remus shot her a nasty look for some reason.

"We figured that, now Peter has one, Moony here should _definitely_ get a girlfriend."

"And if I don't _want_ one?"

Sirius stared at Remus. "Why wouldn't you want one?"

"Forget it." said Remus with disdain. "I've got to go to the library before tonight. See you in the Shack." He left.

"PFMS…" said Sirius airily.

Lily chewed on her tongue in thought. She held up her hand and opened her mouth, then closed it again. She frowned, said; "I'll be a second," and left too.

Remus wasn't far ahead of her – it only took a second to climb out the portrait hole and catch up to him. She pushed a chunk of hair out of her eyes and said;

"Hey,"

"Hi."

It was a bit weird, but she'd been friends with Remus since first year, no matter her past relationships with his mates. She'd always felt comfortable talking to him about everything, just as she had with Kim, but his 'Guy Who Would Listen And Not Complain' position had kind of been filled by James since Christmas. Now she felt a bit awkward talking to him seriously, and by herself.

"Why don't you want a girlfriend?" she blurted out stupidly. Remus stared at her, eyes popping like a goldfish's. Finally, he spoke.

"I do."

"Well, then why–"

"_Girls_ don't want to date _me._"

Lily blinked. That was ridiculous. And she told him so. "That's ridiculous! I could name at _least_ three girls that like you, or think you're–"

"I bet you those girls don't know I'm a werewolf."

He had a point there. Was that what this whole thing was about? Being a werewolf? There _had _to be something else. Maybe the girl he liked was already taken, or he'd already asked her out, and she'd said no.

Whatever it was, it didn't look as though he was going to share it.

"I'll see you later, Lily."

----------

Kim sat on her bed, reading. Well, she wasn't _really_ reading, Lily was sure of it, and not only because she'd had the same page open for about ten minutes. She new exactly how Kim felt – she was feeling just the same.

"I'm sure they're fine." said Lily. Kim looked up with worried, brown eyes.

"But what if they're not?"

"Well…" Lily wasn't sure what to say to that. "They've never been hurt before." _Except James, over Christmas…_ she added in her head. But James had later said it was because the thought of her distracted him. It had really been rather sweet.

Kim sighed and rolled over onto her back, staring up at the top of her four-poster. "But they could be hurt _this_ time."

"Way to be optimistic." said Lily sarcastically.

"He's my boyfriend! I'm worried!"

"So am I! But they're the _Marauders._ Don't worry… this sort of thing is what they do."

"I guess. Well, I'm going to try and go to sleep. G'night." said Kim, quite quickly. She started to draw the curtains around her bed.

Lily considered adding 'They're going to be OK,' but she couldn't. Not only because it would sound stupid, but because she wasn't sure of it herself. She felt this way every Full Moon, but she'd begun to feel a bit better about it. This was Kim's first time knowing that her boyfriend was willingly putting himself in great danger.

In a way, she would have preferred that James were the werewolf. It would have meant that she didn't need to worry about him getting hurt.

It just made Remus' excuse for not wanting a girlfriend seem even more ridiculous.

**A/N:** Hmm… random. I fit a couple of things into this chapter, but that's the way it is. Again, don't hate me for giving Peter a girlfriend and Remus not having one at all. Please? I hate Wormtail too! I just siriusly wanted to make a point with Remus' (non existent) love life. Now review! Pwease?

PWOW: Did I spell Dumblock right? Or is it Dumlock? Lol…


	34. More Serious With Sirius

**A/N: **Yes, once again it's been more than a while. I've been so busy… weddings, the end of the Australian school year (W00T! SUMMER HOLIDAYS! I can update heaps faster!) and whatnot. But the main reason I'm so late is that I wanted to post a chapter today… the 7th of December. Why? Because it's an anniversary today… it's officially been a year since I posted the first chapter of Have a Heart! Wow. A year of writing LilyJames fics. Will I ever get tired?

…No.

**Disclaimer:** JKR isn't arrogant, and I worship JKR. Therefore, if I was JKR I would worship myself and ergo be arrogant, so proving that I'm _not_ JKR. You can't fight my logic!

"Mooooooooony?" sang Sirius annoyingly.

"Yeeeeeeees?" said Remus in the same tone. He didn't look up from his book (_Ancient Runes; Advanced Translation_), but scratched absently at a graze on his arm.

"If you could pick any girl in the year to make out with, who would it be?"

Lily looked up from her own study, disgusted.

"What kind of a question is that?" she asked. She didn't mind so much that he'd asked it, but it wasn't the sort of thing you were supposed to say in front of two girls – particularly when one of them was your girlfriend and the other was your best mate's. Besides, Sirius was _loud._ She didn't want Madam Pince to hear them!

"Well," said Sirius defensively. "A few girls owe me some favours, so it could be quite a relevant one."

James snorted.

"Sirius?" said Kim sweetly.

"Yeah?"

"Shut up."

"OK." said Sirius meekly, and turned back to his blank parchment, looking mildly bored.

"Déjà vu…" muttered Remus.

Lily looked at her book, wishing she had a photographic memory like James, so she could just look at the page and then read it again in the exams. Although she wasn't exactly sure that was how a photographic memory worked…

She then remembered that she was supposed to be reading, and had not taken any of the last page in, and returned to unpreventably boring work.

"Blonde or brunette?" said Sirius, ten minutes later.

"Shut _up,_ Padfoot."

Lily rolled her eyes and sighed. She could see, with her own eyes, that Remus was not enjoying being pestered by Sirius – as if anyone could. She decided that, if he didn't stop sometime soon, she would have to intervene.

----------

And he didn't stop.

All that day he was bothering Remus, asking him what he was going to do next Hogsmeade weekend, offering to ask girls out for him and pointing out certain areas of a woman's anatomy in a loud voice (much to Kim's annoyance).

The thing that got on Lily's nerves the most was that James didn't seem to notice that Remus was being bugged by it – either that or he chose to ignore it, and sometimes join in with Sirius. She came very close to shouting at him the way she had done years before quite a few times. She was also about to shout at Sirius, something she found quite disturbing.

When they were hanging around in the Common Room that night – talking and half-studying in the usual, lazy style – Lily got so annoyed at them both that she actually left at half-past seven for her dormitory.

She threw her bag down angrily on her bed, followed by herself. Whether Remus wanted a girlfriend or not, it was really none of anyone's business but his! It was almost as if old emotions she'd shown years ago were resurfacing… ones of appreciation for Remus and annoyance at Sirius… _and _James.

She sat brooding for another minute or so until Kim came up. At an exchanged glance, Lily knew they'd both left the Common Room for the same reason.

"Why does he even _care?_" Lily exclaimed, as Kim plonked herself onto Lily's bed. Kim shrugged.

"They just do." She said. Lily noticed she changed it to a plural, making the reference of Sirius one of James as well. But Lily wasn't going to put up with that, Sirius was most definitely leading the vexing.

"Well, can you talk to Sirius about it?"

Kim looked up indignantly. "No!"

"Why not?"

"_Because…_" she said, rolling her arms around in a kind of a circular motion, as though explaining the obvious. "It's guys' stuff. We can't interfere! That's like them telling us we had to stop obsessing over our hair."

"But Remus is being bugged!"

"Look, if you care so much, you tell him." Kim snapped. "I'm too tired for any of this, Lily – I was up until three last night doing that bloody Potions homework."

"Fine, I will talk to him."

"Whatever. G'night." Kim pulled her curtains closed.

"Night."

Lily frowned and hunched up her legs against her chest. Unlike Remus, she'd never been close to Sirius… friendly since Christmas, sure, but not any more than that, really. It would be awkward to talk to him like that…

Then she thought about how close she was to James, and how close James was to Sirius, and that if she wanted things to get really, _really_ serious with him, things would also have to get more serious with Sirius. And then she chuckled at the half-joke she'd made to herself.

She got off the bed and walked back down to the Common Room, and reached the Marauders. With a short second consideration, she asked; "Sirius, can I talk to you a minute?"

Sirius blinked. "Yeah, sure."

"Thanks."

She led him over some armchairs out of earshot of James, Remus and Peter. He sat down.

"So… what's up?" asked Sirius. "And if you're wondering how you should tell James you sent him an anonymous love note, my suggestion would probably be to pull him aside sometime in private, tell him it was you, and ask him out afterwards."

Lily giggled. "Good advice."

"Yeah, I thought so." said Sirius, grinning. He shifted his weight on to the side slightly, and silence fell upon them. "So… what's really the problem?"

"Well," Lily paused. "What do – I mean, why are you so obsessed with Remus getting a girlfriend?"

Sirius sighed in a _how-did-I-know-you-were-going-to-ask-that-and-why-did-I-have-to-be-right_ sort of a fashion.

"I mean, it just that it's obviously bugging him, that's all." She added quickly.

"I've known Remus for just about seven years, right?" said Sirius resignedly. Lily nodded. "And in that time, I've seen the lycanthropic bugger pretty depressed."

Lily nodded again, raising an eyebrow.

"But when he's dating someone – a girl, _mostly_–" (she snorted.) "–He's always been happy. He's acting depressed lately, every other Marauder has a girlfriend, I'd just like to see the poor bloke acting cheerful again."

"So you _do_ have feelings!" Lily joked.

"Sometimes." Sirius replied. He paused. "I just don't understand _why_ he doesn't _want_ one!"

"Of course _you_ wouldn't, Sirius. But can you not be so obsessive about it?"

"Yeah, OK." said Sirius.

They genuinely smiled at each other for a few moments. Lily was glad it had been so easy.

"Y'know," he said. "When you first started to date James – after the full moon thing – I was worried you'd try to control all of us."

"But…?" said Lily.

"But what? You do!" he exclaimed. Lily rolled her eyes.

"I wouldn't be able to control all of you even if I _could_ be bothered trying." She laughed. Sirius shrugged in half agreement.

Lily felt a nice sort of a peace… it was like she'd let a kind of a Sirius Guard down. It was almost as if she'd always been worried that Sirius would judge her, but now she knew that he had _already_ judged her. And, strange as it sounded, that was OK because he'd gotten to know her anyway and changed his views. And then she felt bad for having judged him by thinking he'd judge her, just as he'd done. After all, Sirius was only human… well, apart from when he was a dog, but whatever.

"So… how far have you and Prongs gone? _You_ know what I mean…" said Sirius, wiggling his eyebrows. Lily blushed.

"Same as you and Kim."

"How come none of the Marauders are getting any action these days?" sighed Sirius wistfully. "I would've asked James himself, but I doubt he'd tell me anything. You're the first girl he's dated that he's kept private about. He really loves you, you know."

"Thanks." said Lily sincerely. "Kim loves you, too."

Sirius shifted awkwardly in his chair. "Oh," he said, in a way that made Lily curious.

"What, is that not a good thing?"

"No! It's a good thing. I love her, too. It's just…" Sirius hesitated, then shook his head to signal that he didn't want to elaborate.

Lily was going to interrogate him further, but James came over.

"You guys have been awhile. What, are you planning a surprise birthday party for me or something?"

"Aw, you got us!" said Sirius sarcastically. "Nah, me and your girlfriend here were just wondering when we could hook up without you or Kim finding out."

"He's _joking._" said Lily just in case James was dim enough not to realise, standing up and kissing him quickly to prove her point.

"Love you." murmured James, and kissed her cheek.

"I'm going to bed, guys, OK?"

"OK." They chorused.

As Lily drew the curtains shut around her bed, she felt a nice wave of satisfaction pass over her. Sure, she may not have entirely stopped Sirius' girlfriend inquiries, but she was sure she might have made him less obsessive over them. And she felt like she'd crossed a bit of a barrier, and that almost overnight (or over evening) she and Sirius had turned into more good friends than just friendly acquaintances.

After all, Sirius was like a brother to James. Didn't that mean he should be like a sister to Lily?

After thinking on it a minute, Lily decided the answer was _Yes, he should… should James and I ever get married._

**A/N:** Sorry! I've kept you waiting long enough for that, and scanning/editing it, I can tell it's _not_ a very good chapter. But I've been wanting to strengthen/elaborate Lily's relationship with Sirius – because, hey, she obviously was close to all of James' mates… especially Sirius and Remus – probably Peter, too, but we HP readers don't know much about that for obvious reasons. Now, I know you're tired of me telling you to review each chapter, so I'm not going to this time... instead, I've invited along my good friends the Marauders to do the honours.

**Remus:** Hi. I'm Remus.

**James:** I think the readers know that, Moony.

**Remus:** _I_ think the readers want you to shut up!

**Sirius:** PFMS...

**Peter:** It was full moon last week.

**Sirius:** Well then he's still sour because he's the only one without a girlfriend.

**Remus:** WOULD YOU SHUT UP ABOUT THAT? For the last time, I - don't - care!

**Sirius:** Coughgaycough.

**Remus:** Excuse me?

**James:** Guys, we'd better get on with this. Or Dudette13 won't pay us those 10 galleons she promised us.

**Sirius:** OK, fine. Geez Prongs, you're no fun since you became Head Boy.

**James:** I just want the money! I'm going to buy Lily something nice.

**Sirius:** Let me rephrase that. You're no fun since you started going out with Lily.

**Peter:** Yes he is.

**Sirius:** Shut up.

**Remus:** So yes, please review. Dudette13 loves them.

**James:** She worships them on bended knee! She dances for joy with each one! She could live off them if they had any nutritional value!

**Peter:** Seriously, she could. Hahaha... get it, Padfoot? Because serious and Sirius sound the same? Like how it is in the chapter title?

**Sirius:** SHUT UP!

**Peter:** Aw.


	35. A Gay Old Time

**A/N:** Well…. I _did_ update faster! I was actually going to try and surprise myself and update in a few days – goodness knows I'm bored enough – but I was caught in a sort of a fanfic daze at how "popular" my 101 oneshot list turned out to be. Okay, as Rai Thistlethwayte said, sorry for that shameless bit of self promotion there. Aaanyway, thanks to webling-girl05, brick-red-wall (Heh….heh…), PremzaWOW (dunno), HaloAngel, LovinJamesPotter, zippyfox, GraceyLou-Freebush101, writerchick13, Raekitty13, Luna32 (Maaaaaaaybe…) and xo-MidnightSun-ox for their fantastic, inspirational, day-brightening, hilarious etc. reviews!

**Disclaimer:** Nup, I just use J. K. Rowling's characters to write about, read about and imitate on The Sims.

"You look…" said James, searching for an appropriate word as he laid eyes on his mate.

"_Fine._" said Remus firmly.

Peter looked down at his attire uncertainly. He was wearing jeans and a brown, criss-cross patterned v-neck sweater over a cream turtleneck. His hair was neatly brushed, and eyes shining. It didn't look _bad_ perse, but he could have looked better.

James shrugged, and knew that to most girls it was heart that really mattered, and not looks. So long as Peter didn't do or say anything stupid… but if James was honest with himself, the chance of that happening wasn't very high…

Perhaps Peter had reason to look so anxious. He kept fidgeting with a hole at the bottom of his sweater.

"OK, have you brushed your teeth?" asked Sirius. Peter nodded, frowning in confused fashion. "Then you should be fine. If you remember not to spill anything on her, and not go to Madam Puddifoot's, and smile, but not too much or she'll think you're a freak, and not try to kiss her too early, and make sure–"

"Don't listen to him." said Remus, and whacked Sirius across the side of the head. "But you'd better go, it's ten to."

"Cool." said Peter in a high-pitched voice, talking for the first time in minutes and looking like he was going to throw up because of it. "Bye."

"Later."

"See you."

"Have fun!"

He left the room awkwardly, a few galleons jangling in his pocket.

"Aw," sniffed Sirius, making a performance of wiping a non-existent tear from his eye. "Our little Wormtail's growing up! Dating already… to think, it was just yesterday he was walking around in nappies…"

"Don't you mean it _seems_ like just yesterday?" said James.

"No." snorted Sirius, and the three laughed.

"Shall we go to now, then?" said Remus. James assumed he was referring to Hogsmeade.

"Hold on a minute, I've gotta pee." said Sirius.

"Lovely." said Remus. "Go then!"

Sirius hopped from foot to foot for a second, before nodding and dashing out of the room. Remus caught James' gaze, rolled his eyes and flopped down onto his bed. He rested his arms behind his head and stared up at the ceiling.

It was the perfect opportunity for James to ask him. But he approached the subject cautiously. After all, Remus might have been sensitive about it… though he wasn't necessarily…

"Moony?"

"Yeah?" said Remus. He propped himself up on his elbows.

"Uhh…" he thought for a second about how to ask him. But then he realised that if he wanted a frank answer, he'd have to be frank himself. "Are you gay?"

"_What?_" Remus almost fell off of his bed. "No!"

"Oh. OK. Good. Not that there's anything wrong with… but you're not, so it doesn't really…"

"Why do you ask?" said Remus, calming down slightly, though his eyeballs still seemed to big for their sockets.

"Oh, well because you've been really touchy whenever Padfoot's mentioned girls…"

Newfound comprehension mixed with the amazement already on Remus' face. He looked a bit like a puzzled cat. "Right. Well, no, I'm not gay. In fact, I don't like guys at all." He joked. "I like _girls._ One g–" He stopped himself hastily and looked a bit guilty.

"Moony, you've got that look again." said James, frowning.

"What look?"

"The look you had the time we asked you what you really did every month."

He did. It was a look that combined guilt with fear, and at the same time showed concealment of something. Back then it had been that he was a werewolf. Now he, apparently, liked a girl. Maybe one he shouldn't like for some reason. Stupid as it sounded, there could've been plenty of reasons. Maybe it was an ex of him or Sirius, or a Slytherin, or someone that was already taken.

Whatever it was, James decided, he was allowed his privacy. He grinned sheepishly at him

"Sorry."

"It's fine." said Remus, half smiling and obviously trying to wipe the look of shock from his face.

They paused uncomfortably for a second. James plopped himself down on his bed.

"Uh… hey, you should've seen what you did to that dresser in the Shack the other day!" said James. "It was so cool, by the time we'd got there you'd, like, destroyed it completely… and something smelled really bad, so Padfoot thought you must've farted so hard it'd fallen down or something."

Remus laughed. "Glad to know my gradual destruction of the Shrieking Shack has brought some amusement."

Sirius walked back into the room, to see both James and Remus laughing, not only at the joke Remus had made, but the ridiculousness of the situation as a whole. That James had gotten so worked up about asking Remus, and so nervous about the truth, and that really the discussion had meant nothing because Remus wasn't actually gay seemed highly amusing for some reason.

"What did I miss?" said Sirius.

"Oh, we're just having a gay old time." said James, causing Remus to snigger.

"In that case, I don't want to know." said Sirius. He looked completely befuddled. "C'mon, let's go."

James and Remus muttered consent and they left the dormitory, made their way out of the Common Room and started through the castle towards the village.

"So how d'you think Wormtail's doing?" said Remus. "And may I remind you guys that you promised _not_ to interrupt him and Nicky if you see them?"

Sirius ignored the last comment, but answered the first. "Truthfully? Not well. But don't tell him I said that."

"I think he might be going OK." said Remus and shrugged. "We'll find out when he gets back."

"Yeah, because we'll either be wolf-whistling or patting him on the back going 'There, there, Peter' and wishing we hadn't promised the girls we wouldn't drink anymore alcohol 'till we graduate." muttered James.

They were now up to the school gates. Pringle stood there, supervising those coming in and out of Hogwarts grounds. James took a sharp intake of breath and heard Remus and Sirius do the same, and felt a pang at the thought of their lost Map.

"Morning, boys." He said, sneering and revealing gums with only three or four yellow teeth left. "Lovely day."

What a liar. It was a cold, wet, measly day.

James bit his tongue to stop himself from retaliating, following Remus' lead in ignoring him. Sirius, however looked down at Pringle (he was rather short) and turned his head away sharply whilst sniffing in dignified manner as they walked past.

Pringle's hoarse, pipe-smoking affected laugh floated after them all the way to the main street, carried by the wind.

"Git." mumbled Sirius.

"So where shall we go first? Zonkos?" said Remus in a falsely cheery voice. James had to admire his attempt at distracting them from what had just happened – Remus didn't much like Zonkos. Well, he did, but not as much as him and Sirius.

"OK. And after that, can we nip into the Three Broomsticks for something warm? It's bloody freezing."

"Yeah, and can we go to the school supplies shop? I need a new quill for the exams." said James.

"And Honeydukes – I'm running low on chocolate." added Remus.

"And then we can go to the Shrieking Shack? We might be able to see the 'ghosts'!" Sirius put in, using air quotes on the last word. Remus gave his usual grumpy, 'Werewolf Joke' glare.

----------

Peter stumbled through the portrait hole; soaking wet, shivering, arms crossed and looked completely and utterly disorientated. By the way he looked, James was surprised he'd managed to find his way back.

"Hey, Peter." said Kim. "How was the date?"

"And why're you wet?" said Remus.

"Good. Rain." mumbled Peter. Lily, apparently noticing Peter needed to sit down, offered him her chair and seated herself on the floor, against James' legs.

"What _happened?_" asked Sirius, looking aghast.

Peter began to say something so quickly and quietly that James could only hear a few words, such as; "She… and then… and we… and I couldn't…"

"OK, OK." said James. "Let's get this straight. Did it or did it not go well?"

Peter half-shrugged, half-nodded.

"Did you enjoy yourself, then?"

Peter nodded with full sincerity this time.

"Did she?"

Peter drew breath. "I – _think _– so." He said slowly.

"Did you kiss?" asked Lily. James stared at her – she shrugged and mouthed something he couldn't understand.

"Just then." He said reluctantly. Sirius cheered, and James – remembering what he'd said earlier – whistled. "I mean, just now. I mean, before she right. Before she _left._"

"_Nice!_" said Sirius. James knew he'd ask Peter more about it later – out of the presence of the girls, and maybe Remus.

"So did you ask her out again?" said Kim.

"Uh…" Peter looked lost. "Was I supposed to?"

"Yes!" said Sirius, and smacked his palm against his head.

"It's not too late," said Remus. "Run after Nicky and ask her."

"I don't know which direction the Hufflepuff Common Room is!" said Peter. He looked so overwhelmed it seemed likely he was about to cry.

"Me and James do. You go to down the marble staircase, through a door to the… left, it'll be when you're coming down the stairs. Then you just follow the corridor 'till you get to the end. I dunno the password, but it takes ages – she won't be there yet." said Lily.

"Go! Run!" said Sirius. Peter nodded and did so, tripping over and falling out of the portrait hole, followed by a faint;

"I'm OK!"

"So we ended up wolf whistling. Who would've guessed?" said James to Sirius in an undertone.

"Yeah." He paused. "I still wish we hadn't promised the girls we wouldn't drink alcohol, though."

**A/N:** And that's it until… I decide to write another 2000 words or so! And yes – I am going to break Peter's heart. So… review, and I'll send a letter to Santa Claus about getting you exactly what you want for Christmas. For those who want schoolboy!Sirius, a single file line just here, please.


	36. Realisation And Melodrama

**A/N:** 'Twas the day before Christmas, and Dudette13's mother, was yelling at her as she posted Crazy About Each Other. The reviewers, GiddyGirlie, Raekitty13, LovinJamesPotter, writerchick13, Luna32, palomapotter, zippyfox, ShiaShadow, PremzaWitchOfWeirdos and When Pickles Fly were thanked for their care, in the hope that some more reviews soon would be there… ;D

**Disclaimer:** Dreams of being JKR have replaced the sugarplum ones dancing through my head.

"Black!" McGonagall barked at Sirius, who'd been whispering something to Kim and Remus. "Pay attention!"

James snorted quietly into his hand, until Lily elbowed him. He stuck his tongue out at her – most unfortunately McGonagall noticed this. She gave him a look of complete contempt, then turned sharply back to the class and continued her talk on the sorts of things they would need to know for their NEWTs. Lily couldn't believe there was only four more weeks left of school. And it was already Tuesday of this one! That meant there was really only three weeks and five and a half days left! And only two weeks and six and a half days until NEWTs started!

They were only really doing revision in all of their classes now, the teachers wouldn't dare to try and start something new this close to the exams. Revision in class and out of class as well as the usual homework, Head duties, eating, sleeping and simply existing left about an hour a day for pretty much anything else… and half of that time was spent with James.

"What's got McGonagall's knickers in a knot today?" said Kim across the table at Lily.

James pulled a face. "Eww! McGonagall's…_ underwear_?"

Sirius gagged.

"Isn't it obvious?" asked Remus. "Two Order members were killed, like, a week ago–"

"Duh!" muttered Sirius. He paused, put on a puzzled face and turned back to Remus. "Wait… really?"

Remus rolled his eyes. "–and they found out yesterday. One of them was some hundred and six year old bloke I've never heard of, but the other was Emmeline's mother."

"God…" Lily was sure she would have whispered it, even if she hadn't been in class. Her eyes were wide and sympathetic. Quickly, she scanned the room for Emmeline, who would normally be present, but she wasn't there. _Where is she? With Dumbledore? In the dormitory? Going home to see her father? _Lily gasped. "Is her _father_ still alive?"

"Yep." said Remus.

"Wow. Maybe Mum's right… she'd been trying to talk my sister out of joining the Order…" Kim spoke slowly

"Hang on, how do you know all this?" asked James and suddenly turned on Remus, a frown line appearing between his eyebrows.

Remus shrugged. "A little birdie told me."

McGonagall cleared her throat, and they turned towards her, trying to wipe sheepishness from their faces.

----------

As it turned out, Emmeline hadn't headed home – she was at dinner, and sitting with Alice and Tara at the end of the table. Lily, James, Sirius, Remus and Kim kept tutting sympathetically as they glanced on her when helping themselves to another bread roll. Eventually, Peter turned to Remus and said;

"Uh, am I, like, missingsomething?"

"Emmeline's mother was killed the other night. She found out today." said Remus with the air of someone who'd said it too many times.

"How?" asked Peter between bites of roast lamb.

"Death Eaters."

"No, I mean _how?_"

"Oh." Remus shifted nervously in his seat. "Werewolves. Greyback. And a bunch of others."

Lily saw him look at James and Sirius in turn.

"Isn't he the one that–?"

"Bites young children? Yes, Kim." said Sirius meaningfully.

"Oh. _Oh._ Yeah, I remember him."

Lily looked at Remus. "Do werewolf bites kill?"

"Sometimes." Remus sighed. He suddenly looked a hell of a lot older that eighteen.

She'd always thought of herself as fairly mature, but now she realised that Remus so much more grown up than the rest of them. _Not surprising, with a condition like that he's been through more than most adults!_ She felt like patting him comfortingly on the back, but she knew it was too weird and potentially embarrassing. So she contented herself with smiling consolingly.

She was suddenly struck with a vivid image of the Shrieking Shack, and how torn apart it had been when she'd seen it over the Christmas break. And the gash in James' shoulder, and how guilty Remus must have felt for causing it.

"Hold on," Kim said. She pushed herself off of her chair, walked across the length of the Gryffindor table and said something to Emmeline, who shrugged, said something back and – from what Lily could see – smiled back.

They talked for a few moments, then Kim nodded and walked back. "She _says_ she's OK."

It was amazing how much one death, even to someone Lily wasn't that close to, could affect her so much. It caused _realisation_, of sorts. She supposed that was why Sirius had been so weird after his dad died, even if he didn't have so much of an emotional connection, the thought of someone you'd always known and taken for granted dying. And Lily felt this from just Emmeline's mother, whom she'd never even met, although she had seen her once at the train station. It was incredible.

She wondered what it would feel like if her own parents or family dies, no, that was a bad example, they wouldn't be killed by Death Eaters. Well, what if Kim' parents were killed? What would that be like? Or James'? She hadn't even ever met them!

And even though James wasn't exactly enthusiastic about meeting _her _parents, she'd heard a lot about his from him, and was looking forward to seeing them after school finished. After all, they might well one day be her parents it law, if everything continued on smoothly in and after school.

----------

Lily sat on the armchair, watching as Remus thought, her knees hugged up to her chest, along with a soft cushion she had conjured. Her tongue was pressed up on the roof of her mouth, because she'd heard somewhere that if you did so, you couldn't cry. Not that she was about to cry, she was thinking, but it was just in case.

James came over, and stood over the back of the chair.

"You've been sitting like that for awhile."

"We're playing chess." said Lily, indicating Remus and temporarily removing the tongue for it's position at the top of her mouth.

"That's obviously not it. What else are you doing?"

"Thinking."

"Of?"

Lily squeezed the cushion. She knew she could be totally honest with James, but she didn't want it to sound like she was tragically sad, or melodramatic. Even though she often was.

"It's just… well, we don't know who's going to die and one of both Sirius and Emmeline's parents have died and it could have just as easily been yours, or Remus' or Peter's or Kim's…or even mine…" she said, very fast.

James blinked. "Where'd that pillow come from?"

"Conjured it." said Lily, and unwillingly grinned.

"And yet you're worried about NEWTs? It has sequins!" he said, and laughed. Then his face turned more serious. "Look, me and Peter and Kim's parents aren't in the Order. Remus' are, I think, but–"

Remus cleared his throat, and James stopped talking.

"Sirius' dad wasn't in the Order."

"Yeah, but he was a git."

Lily glared half-heartedly at him, before biting her lip. "Everything would be so perfect… me and you, Sirius and Kim, Peter and Nicky, seventh year, Heads… I just _hate_ Voldemort!" she finished, spitting the name. It took her a while to realise what she'd said. "Uh, I mean, You-Know-Who."

"It's just a name." shrugged Remus.

James wrapped his arms around her shoulders. She couldn't help but notice the nice, warm thing that was growing in her chest. He really did smell nice.

"No one will get hurt. I promise." It was an empty promise, but she couldn't help trusting him. He kissed her, squeezing her tightly around the waist. Lily smiled. He knew just how to make her feel better.

Remus cleared his throat again. James lessened his hold Lily, but still had his arms around her torso, and blinked several times in what Lily guessed was holding off a blush. _Blush!_ It sounded so feminine! She giggled slightly, which hurt with James looped around her ribs.

There was a small thud of a chess piece being moved forwards, and Remus turned to Lily. "Your turn."

Lily pushed herself off of James and scanned the board, before prodding her own, black knight forward three and one to the left. There it engaged in tussle with a white bishop, before jabbing it off of the chequered wood.

**A/N:** Apologies for the real small and pointless chap., crossing my fingers that it wasn't _that_ crap! So readers, make a wish and then send a review, and on Christmas day I'm sure it will come true. And as Dudette13 wondered if the rhyming thing had been gay, she said "Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good day."


	37. No Butts

**A/N:** I AM SO SORRY. I _swear _I didn't realise how uneventful and boring last chapter was! I thought there was a part in it that was actually in the chapter before… blame Christmas for fuddling up my brain. Tell me what I can do to make it up to you… oneshots, virtual chocolate cakes, never writing again, real chocolate cakes…;) Thanks to GraceyLou-Freebush101, WhenPicklesFly, Raekitty13, GiddyGirlie, PremzaWitchOfWeirdos, webling-girl05, writerchick13 and palomapotter for their kind words in spite of it!

**Disclaimer:** Say "Honka honka" to J. K. Rowling. If she doesn't laugh, you'll know it isn't me.

"It _was_ a nice jinx, though. I mean, I didn't even know you knew a jinx!" said Peter. "Well, of course you do, you used to jinx Prongs all the time, but–" Lily glared at him, and he stopped talking.

"Did you even _see_ how much trouble we got in to?" she replied, and banged her head against her forearm a couple of times.

"Yep." said Sirius. He put on a face that was scarily similar to the one McGonagall had put on a few minutes ago. "_Disgusting! In a room full of students! You should be setting a good example!_"

Lily groaned in despair. She was so busy wallowing in self pity that she didn't notice Remus and Kim walk up to her, Sirius and Peter until Kim's voice said;

"Is it _true?_ Did you really jinx Snape's butt off?"

Sirius laughed. "Like he had any butt to begin with."

"No I did not jinx Snape's butt off!" Lily snapped. "I just tried _Tarantallegra_ at the same time as James did _Punicorbus_… and as a result he was trying to swat away attacking, purple blobs whilst tap dancing… and, well, his butt was just… _gone_."

"Not a bad combination at all." muttered Sirius, smirking.

"Oh, glad _someone's_ getting amusement out of this." said Lily to him irritably. He grinned in reply.

"So… what," said Remus. "Did you get house points taken off?"

Lily nodded. "And detention." She added.

"Oh. With Prongs?"

"Dunno. He's just gone to find out." She said, and made a half-sobbing noise of despair. She'd only ever had a detention twice before – and they'd both been from harming James in some way, shape or form. Neither had been pleasant experiences, but both had been memorable. She'd been cleaning out the library for detention when her first boyfriend, Dyllan, had asked her out. And the other time accidentally inhaling the gas off of a plant in greenhouse three had almost killed her.

James came in looking annoyed. He turned and faced Lily. "Good news or bad news first?" he asked.

"Good." said Lily.

"OK, well, we are doing the detention together, tonight, six o'clock…"

"But?" said Kim.

"_But_ we're cleaning out the Owlery – no magic." James finished.

Sirius inhaled sharply and grimaced sympathetically. Kim pulled a face. Lily imagined wiping the grimy, smelly, owl dropping covered floor of the Owlery with a tablecloth and gagged.

"No magic?" she repeated disbelievingly.

"Nope." said James. "Not even Magical Mess–Remover."

Lily gave a half-sob again.

"What Snape did to make you two curse his butt off is what _I_ want to know." said Kim.

"It's a mystery for the ages." shrugged Remus to Kim, after ten seconds of no-one answering.

----------

Lily and James faced the Owlery in despair. Never had it seemed quite so large, or so dirty, or so full of owls. Rustling of feathers and the general squawking, screeching, hooting noises owls make filled the air.

"Why don't they just call them all Russell?" said James. Lily stared at him blankly, and he chuckled. "Get it, 'cause they _rustle?_"

Lily rolled her eyes. "I had a friend called Russell when I was little." she said quietly, more to herself than James. "I think he moved to Thailand."

James was looking thoughtful. He looked at Lily through narrowed eyes. "D'you think we can just… leave?" said James. "I mean, it's not like there's anyone here supervising us…"

Lily watched as he tried to open the door and found that the handle had disappeared. He cursed.

"I suppose it'll be back when we're done?" said Lily. James shrugged.

"Maybe we should just get started." He said, apparently coming to terms with the fact that they _did_ have to clean. "We can go at eight, right? And it's…" he checked his watch. "Three past six. So if we start now, we'll at least have _some_ done, and then they'll know we did some, even if we just hang out for the rest of the time."

"You have an evil mind." said Lily, but agreed anyway.

As she bent down, the putrid smell of Merlin-knew-what was so overwhelming, she stood up again almost straight away, her eyes watering. James cursed.

"How horrible." He choked.

"It doesn't make sense that we both do the floor." said Lily.

"You're right. I'll do it." said James.

"Nah, I will." said Lily, hit with a sudden urge to clean the disgusting floor. She wondered if it was the same feeling her mother had always had when the kitchen sink was dirty.

"Okay…" said James. "I'll do the window ledges then."

Lily squatted back down, breathing only through her mouth and her nose tucked down the neck of her t-shirt as a precaution, and began to rub the cloth back and forth over the stone. Luckily, it came off quite easily, the droppings were almost slippery. She scanned the Owlery with newfound optimism. It didn't seem as big now she knew how easy it was to clean, no matter how gross. She wiped the dirt off into the wooden pail.

"Ew! Come look at this!" said James. He was by the window, surrounded by owls and looking at something Lily couldn't see with a half-amused, half-disgusted expression, his head cocked to the side.

Lily went over to him, and made a vague expression of surprise. Feathers were flying everywhere. Lily tilted her head to the side, too.

"I think that's Moony's owl." said James.

"He'd better be careful, or there'll be little Moony's owls flying all over the place."

"Mmm."

Lily shrugged and turned back around, only to face a large, hooting barn owl. She stumbled backwards in surprise, tripped and fell onto her face.

"You OK?" James asked. Lily groaned and rolled over to face him.

"Covered in owl business, but yeah, fine." She grinned, as he extended a hand to help her up. She looked down at her shirt. "Bet this looks really lovely." She sighed, and wished she'd brought her wand to at least vanish the white blobs varying in moistness clinging to her clothing.

"You know what?" said James. "You're covered in owl crap, stink like a dung bomb, have a feather in your hair–" he raised a hand and plucked it out. "And there's a small egg beginning to well up on your forehead." Lily went up to touch her head, and winced as she felt a bump where she'd hit herself. "But yeah, you do look lovely."

"Thanks." Lily smiled, but raised her eyebrows as James kissed her swiftly. "C'mon, let's get back to it."

As James whined softly, she smirked and continued back down on the floor, with quiet thankfulness that she hadn't worn her favourite clothes.

_I mean really, what do these owls eat to have this smell so foul?_ she wondered, sniffing the air around her softly and almost choking.

----------

"Three, two, one!"

The handle appeared on the door leading to the half-cleaned Owlery. Lily suspected it would have been almost entirely spotless, had the owls not been constantly adding to the mess as she and James had been cleaning.

"_Yes!_" James pounced out the door and danced stupidly around the hall.

"James, stop. You'll get hurt." said Lily, rolling her eyes.

"Nah, don't worry," said James, still dancing. "There's nothing I can hit!"

"But I'll hurt you if you don't stop." said Lily.

James laughed nervously, as if not sure if she meant it or not. He'd been hurt by her to many times it the past not to take it fairly seriously.

"Let's go." said Lily wearily. They walked (or, in James' case at one point, fell) down the stairs, walked down to the Entrance Hall and made their way slowly to Gryffindor Tower. Once at the portrait hole, James told the Fat Lady "Vulnero Magister Protinus", and entered the Common Room.

Once they found Sirius, Remus, Peter and Kim, had been greeted and sat down, Sirius said; "Merlin, who on God's green and purple earth did _that?_ Wormtail?"

"I didn't do it!" said Peter, and put his hand up to his nose. Remus and Kim followed almost immediately.

"I can't smell anything." said Lily, and James nodded his agreement. Kim leaned her head over toward them and sniffed apprehensively. She coughed loudly, in obvious disgust.

"You guys smell like a Zonko's Double Dungbomb!" She exclaimed.

"Is that _them?_" said Sirius increludously.

"Have a shower." said Remus shortly.

"And stay in there for days," Peter added.

"OK, fine." said Lily, sulky, weary, aching and – apparently – smelly. "And no James, _not_ together."

James sighed and shook his head. "You know me too well."

**A/N:** And with this chapter, not only do you get an apology at the beginning, but one at the end as well! See, I know the update took longer that I said it would on my profile etc, but I was away camping… and around where I was it was FLOODING. In AUSTRALIA. IN SUMMER FOR FREAKS SAKE! So I've been a bit preoccupied lately. Okay, now to normal Author's Notes. Well, I tried to make this chapter a little more… plotline-less, whether that's good or bad, I'm not sure, but it's a bit more fun for me…lol. Now review... or don't... do whatever you want... don't review just coz I told you to! Make up your own mind. Oh dear. This isn't coming out right. Let's just say "I hope you review".


	38. Averagely Average and Lamely Lame

**A/N: **Hey! Again, mass apologies for lack of updates, I'm not going to bore you with the excuses this time, like starting school, getting a new computer and not to mention… whoops, better stop before it gets out of hand :P OK, I'm going straight to the thanking of the reviewers – so, yeah, GraceyLou-Freebush101 (You said it!), webling-girl05, GiddyGirlie, Raekitty13, writerchick13, Luna32, PremzaWitchOfWeirdos and -harlEE- rock my toe socks. Heheh… toe socks.

**Disclaimer:** If I was JKR, I'd sure as hell be reading Deathly Hallows!

"Oh my God!" said Remus, and he plopped himself down on the floor. Lily and James, who had been enjoying some 'alone time', looked up in confusion and annoyance.

"Yes?" said James in an irritated impression of politeness. Remus was too busy looking appalled to notice.

"My owl's–"

"Pregnant?" Lily suggested, and glanced sideways at a grinning James.

Remus raised an eyebrow. "Yeah… how'd you know?"

"Sell the baby owl." said James. "Snowy owls can be worth heaps."

"Hermia's not a snowy." said Remus, stating the obvious.

"Yeah, but the father is." said James.

"We saw them." said Lily, lip bitten to prevent a sudden outburst of giggles at Remus' face. "Detention."

"Oh, OK." said Remus. "Then I don't need to bother myself with useless suspicions, and begin looking under James' mattress for adult magazines designed for owls."

"Nope." said James casually. "C'mon, we have…" he checked his timetable. "Lunch."

"How could you _forget_?"

The three walked down Gryffindor Tower and towards the Great Hall, and were joined on the way by Sirius and Kim. The Entrance Hall rang and echoed with the sounds of students at break. They eventually found seats at the Gryffindor table, and dug into a lunch of soup – perfect for the cool weather. Kim pulled out the few questions they were supposed to answer for Assero.

"Hey." Peter had arrived. He sat down in a spot Remus and Sirius had saved for him between them.

There were mumbles of greeting in reply; everyone was more intent on their lunch.

"I didn't get the part about shield charms in Defence Against the Dark Arts." said Peter, glancing at Kim's parchment.

"I didn't _hear_ the part about shield charms in Defence Against the Dark Arts." said Sirius.

"I really didn't understand that whole werewolf thing… in Defence Against the Dark Arts." said Remus quietly. Lily was the only one who heard, and she chuckled. Remus grinned toothily back.

"If you were being attacked by a muggle, you would…?" Kim asked.

"Defence with magic then modify his memory." James reeled off. He turned to Lily. "Hey Lily, I forgot, did you get an invitation to Slughorn's final seventh year party… thing tonight?"

"I thought he'd stopped the stupid things." muttered Sirius. "It's like… The Return Of The Invites From The CPLT."

"CPLT?"

"Crystallised-Pineapple-Loving Teacher."

"Yeah…" said Lily, then continued. "I got one. I don't think I'll go, though."

"I've had it with stupid invitations." said James. "Slughorn... weddings… Sirius' bachelor party… Oh yeah, you heard right, Sirius' bachelor party." He added, as Lily and Kim turned quickly around.

"You're not supposed to have one until the night before you get married!" said Lily exasperatedly, and then looked at Kim. "Hang on, is there something you're not telling me?" she joked.

Sirius shrugged. "Hey, all it says in the name is _bachelor_ party. I'm a bachelor, aren't I?"

"I guess." said Kim. She hit him over the head with a bag that thumped. "_No_ bachelor party."

"Aw." Sirius whined. Kim ignored him and instead read out;

"'If dealing with the Imperius curse what's the best way to avoid total control?' Man, when did we do these? Fifth year?" She wrote something down on her parchment.

"Yeah, but NEWTs are, like, a revision of everything since first year." said Remus.

"Oh." said Sirius, and simply swore.

----------

Despite what they'd said, Lily, James and Sirius all headed down to Slughorn's office that night. As usual, it had been magically enlarged to fit plenty of people, although this party was supposedly only seventh years. They were late – on purpose – and the party was already in full swing when they arrived… or, at least, as much of a full swing as it was likely to get in to.

Some music was playing on an old wireless in the background, and the chatter was short and quiet. A table of finger food draped in a deep purple tablecloth with a thick golden hem was in the corner, and this seemed to be where most of the students were lingering. Slughorn, however, seemed to be having a marvellous time, his walrus-y moustache covered in crumbs from what Lily suspected was cake.

James coughed.

"I'm going to go get something to eat…" muttered Sirius, carefully avoiding Slughorn as he madehis way towards the snack table.

"Hi Prongs, Lily." said Peter.

"Hi?" said Lily, surprised, and turned around to look at him.

"I'm here with Nicky." said Peter. Sure enough, a girl stood behind him. Lily realised she'd never actually seen Nicky up close before. She was quite… well, averagely tall, averagely thin, had averagely cut brown hair, was averagely pretty and just average overall.

"Hi." she said brightly.

"I'm gunna see Sirius." said Peter, and left Lily alone with James and Nicky.

They stood awkwardly for a few seconds.

"I've always been curious," said Nicky, addressing James. "How did you guys get your nicknames?"

"Oh!" said James. He turned to Lily and muttered in her ear; "Why do you girls always want to know that?"

Lily shrugged.

"Well we made them up when we were bored one day. I got 'Prongs', 'cause they said my hair stuck up like a fork's. Peter got 'Wormtail', uh, because his favourite animals have always been rats." said James. Lily was impressed.

"And Sirius and Remus?" she asked.

"Well, Remus is 'Moony' because he was born at a full moon. And Sirius is really good at, like, sneaking around, so we gave him 'Padfoot'."

"That's pretty cool." said Nicky.

"Well we always thought so… or hoped." said James, grinning. Nicky laughed, showing averagely straight teeth.

"I suppose I'd better get back to Peter. Nice to meet you, James… Lily."

They waved as she walked off.

"What was _that?_" Lily asked.

"I don't know!"

Lily glared.

"I don't _know!_" James repeated.

She sighed, rolling her eyes dramatically.

"So what did you think of her?' said James.

"She was OK…" said Lily. "Kind of neutral."

"I get what you mean." said James. "She was averagely… average."

"Mmm. Like this party." said Lily, indicating the room in front of them.

"No, this party is lamely lame."

"Uh-huh."

"That didn't make sense, did it?"

"Nope."

"And if it isn't our Head Boy and Girl!" boomed Slughorn. He waddled their way slowly.

"Oh, damn." James whispered. Lily snorted reluctantly.

"Hi, Professor Slughorn." said Lily. James half-heartedly waved his hand.

"Good evening, good evening." said Slughorn. "Doesn't it seem like a long time since we were in here, having one of my little parties?"

"Oh, yeah." said James. Lily hoped Slughorn didn't notice the sarcasm, but if he did he didn't show it.

"I just couldn't let you all graduate before having one last get together." He said. Lily and James nodded. Slughorn cracked a smile "So you two finally got together! I always knew you would, you know. All those years chasing her, Potter! But you've made a good choice, you know, Lily."

"That's what everyone's saying…" said Lily.

"I don't suppose anyone will know what it was that brought you two together?"

"No one but us, sir." Lily's voice was lilting with humour. She smiled as she imagined the Potions professor's face if she'd told him all about

"Yep." said James shortly.

"I'll go and have a little chat to Miss Jones, then." said Slughorn. "Enjoy yourselves!"

James waited until he was out of earshot until he let out a sharp, irritated breath.

"What's up with you?" asked Lily.

"I don't like him that much, you know that."

"But _why?_"

"Because! He's warm to you and me and Sirius etcetera, but he's not as nice to Remus, or Peter, or Kim! _And_ he's Head of Slytherin!"

Lily blinked. "Okay, fair enough."

"I'm gunna go get a bite, do you want something?" said James casually.

"Yeah. Just grab me something small – I had heaps for dinner."

She listened to the music, bored, and waited until James returned. When he did, Sirius came with him.

"Hey," said Sirius, crumbs spraying from his mouth. "Just met Nicky."

"What do you think?" said Lily. Sirius shrugged, and swallowed.

"She's alright. Nothing too special."

"She must be _something_ special, or Slughorn wouldn't have invited her." said James. Lily had to admit that this was a good point.

"She's probably really smart or something. Makes you wonder why Peter liked her in the first place." said Sirius, and took another bite if a brown, spongy cake that was part of the pile he was holding in a napkin. "Prongs, you've _got_ to try this mud cake, man."

"I'm fine, thanks." said James. The remaining mud cake, which was a brown pile not yet properly digested by Sirius, didn't look that appetising.

"Your loss. Why d'you reckon Remus' never been invited to one of these?"

"Dunno."

"'Cause, you know, he's, like, really smart." Sirius finished the sentence along with the mud cake.

"I guess he's just not invited because of his furry little problem." James said. "It's going to be hard for him to find good work, and Slughorn wouldn't suck up to him if he didn't expect to get anything in return."

"James…"

"_And_ Kim." Sirius added. "And Peter can be pretty smart, when he's paying attention."

"No he can't." said James, and they laughed hysterically.

"Merlin," said Lily. "You know, sometimes I feel like you and Sirius would make a better couple than we do!"

"That's probably true." said James, and when Lily put on an angry face, he continued; "Sorry?"

"You should be. If that happened, I'd have to pair up with _Remus._"

"Or Kim." joked James.

Sirius slapped his hand on James' arm for attention, staring off into space. "You know, mate, that's not really a bad idea."

"Ugh." said Lily. "I'm going to be searching for intellectual company."

She took a bit of a walk around the office. She was cornered again by Slughorn, chatted vaguely with a few Ravenclaw girls she knew from Arithmancy, journeyed to the snacks table (and found that Sirius had indeed been right, when not reduced to regurgitated mush, the mud cake was fairly good), and grumpily made her way back to the two boys in annoyed resolution that they were really the most interesting people to be with at the whole party.

**A/N:** Look, I know updates are taking a while, truth be told, this is the LAST chapter I'll ever write that _should_ take this long – coz every other chapter is planned out, and more interesting than the last few, hopefully. To be totally honest, I was running out of some ideas for chapters! That problem, however, is fixed now, so much faster updates are probable – but no promises. No matter how long the wait, you can be sure that this fic will definitely be finished – if only, but certainly not just because, one of the things that annoys me the most is writers that leave fics unfinished. Soo… review and you'll get a parcel of chocolate in the mail.


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